乘公共汽车(或地铁)安全吗?

乘公共汽车(或地铁)安全吗?

A worker disinfects the inside of a bus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Transit agencies are taking new steps to reduce the risks for riders during the pandemic.

在埃塞俄比亚首都亚的斯亚贝巴，一名工人正在给一辆公交车内部消毒。运输机构正在采取新的措施，以减少流行病期间乘客的风险。

Is it safe to take public transit?

乘坐公共交通安全吗?

On the one hand, data reveals that people are staying away from mass transit in huge numbers compared to before the novel coronavirus. In New York City, for instance, subway ridership is at just 20% of its 5.5 million weekday riders pre-pandemic.

一方面，数据显示，与新冠病毒出现之前相比，远离公共交通的人越来越多。以纽约市为例，目前的地铁客流量仅为疫情爆发前550万工作日客流量的20%。

Transit, a mobile app providing real-time public transit data, analyzed 139 transit agencies spanning 68 metro areas and 6 countries and found that demand for public transit has dropped 53% since the onset of the pandemic.

提供实时公共交通数据的移动应用程序Transit分析了横跨68个都市区和6个国家的139个公共交通机构，发现自疫情爆发以来公共交通需求下降了53%。

People are understandably worried about the risks of contagion and being trapped in an enclosed space for the duration of a trip.

人们担心被传染的风险，担心在旅途中被限制在一个封闭的空间，这是可以理解的。

But ridership is beginning to rebound. Since April, the Transit app data shows, the number of those taking public transit has slowly but steadily increased.

但客流量开始回升。 Transit 应用的数据显示，自4月份以来，乘坐公共交通的人数一直在缓慢但稳定地增长。

Plus, for many, like essential workers, stopping commuting wasn't a choice, as Stephen Morse, professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Medical Center points out.

此外，正如哥伦比亚大学医学中心的流行病学教授斯蒂芬•莫尔斯指出的那样，对许多人来说，就像基本工作人员一样，停止通勤并不是一个选择。

"Many of us may have no alternative – especially when it comes to essential workers, who, in New York, travel from various boroughs to work," says Morse. "There's no alternative to mass transit."

莫尔斯说:“我们很多人可能没有其他选择，特别是对于那些在纽约需要从不同的区去工作的基础员工。”“除了公共交通，没有别的选择。”

Unfortunately, few academic studies have systematically looked at the risk of mass transit — although case studies from public health authorities in Paris, Austria and Tokyo have been unable to tie any group of outbreaks to rail lines or city public transportation.

不幸的是，很少有学术研究系统地考察公共交通的风险——尽管来自巴黎、奥地利和东京公共卫生当局的案例研究未能将任何一组疫情与铁路或城市公共交通联系起来。

Nonetheless, Morse and other public health specialists urge that mass transit be approached with caution.

尽管如此，莫尔斯和其他公共卫生专家敦促人们谨慎使用公共交通。

Morse says that with all public transit — buses, subways, trains — there is always some risk of infection. After all, you are entering a public space.

莫尔斯说，所有的公共交通工具——公共汽车、地铁、火车——都有感染的风险。毕竟，你进入的是一个公共空间。

Robyn Gershon, a clinical professor of epidemiology and public health disaster researcher who has studied the impact of COVID-19 on transit workers, says you can divide the safety of motorized transit options into tiers.

流行病学临床教授和公共卫生灾难研究人员罗宾·格尔森研究了COVID-19对运输工人的影响，他说，你可以把机动车运输的安全性分为几个等级。

Safest is driving your own car, but of course, not everyone owns or can even afford a car.

最安全的是开自己的车，当然，并不是每个人都拥有或者买得起一辆车。

Rideshare apps like Uber come next, but they're a little challenging in terms of evaluating risk, Gershon says. It's a good sign when your driver has put up panels that create a barrier between the front and back of the car, wears a mask and keeps the windows open to encourage ventilation and airflow. Such measures help reduce the risk of viral particle exchange between you and your driver.

其次是优步等拼车应用，但在评估风险方面，它们有点挑战性，格尔森说。如果你的司机在车的前后之间安装了隔离板，戴上了口罩，并让车窗保持开着以促进通风和空气流通，这是一个好迹象。这些措施有助于减少你和司机之间病毒颗粒交换的风险。

Buses and subways represent the final — and greatest — tier of risk. Gershon says buses might pose even more potential risk, because it could be harder for passengers to maintain distance from each other while subways tend to have several cars on a train, offering a greater opportunity to stay 6 feet or more from others.

公共汽车和地铁是最后也是最大的风险。格尔森说，公交车可能会带来更大的潜在风险，因为乘客之间很难保持距离，而地铁往往有好几节车厢，乘客之间有更大的机会保持6英尺甚至更远的距离。

"I think you can prudently ride the subway if you're reasonably healthy and have no other risk factors," Gershon says.

“我认为，如果你身体健康，而且没有其他危险因素，你可以谨慎地乘坐地铁，” 格尔森说。