One October morning, in a protest(抗议) led by Bike Grid Now, a Chicago-based group of cyclists, three dozen cyclists gathered outside Chicago’s downtown, before cycling together to City Hall. They spread across all three lanes, before pausing outside the entrance to block car traffic. After a police officer on a bicycle appeared, they rang their bells and headed for bike lanes, and then went to their jobs in the nearby offices.
Such protests now happen in Chicago almost weekly, demanding more safety for cyclists. In September, on “World Car Free Day”, several hundred cyclists blocked an eight-lane highway running alongside Lake Michigan. Similar protests have been held in many other American cities.
Bike activism is hardly new, yet the pace has accelerated, largely thanks to trends caused by COVID-19. Since the pandemic(疫情), more cyclists are on America’s roads than ever. Bicycle sales have risen—electric bikes outsold electric cars last year and cycle hire plans in American cities recorded more users than ever this past summer.
As more people are getting on bikes, they realize how unsafe many American streets are. Though bike lanes are proliferating in many cities, they aren’t protected. In 2020, 1,260 people nationwide were killed in crashes on bikes, a 44% increase on a decade before, according to the National Safety Council, a non-profit group. Some of that increase may be because more bikes are on the roads, but it also seems that people are driving more dangerously, too. Last year almost 43,000 people were killed in car crashes of all sorts, the highest figure since 2005.
Christina set up a website, Bike Lane Uprising, to report people who park in Chicago’s bike lanes. She says the site has been filled with such reports, but cyclists are making an effort to force changes. The city has, for example, put concrete barriers in some bike lanes to stop drivers from entering them. She says officials did this in response to protests. “There are so many bikers who are becoming single-issue voters,” she says. They may be starting a virtuous cycle.
【小题1】What impression do we get about the protesters in paragraph 1?| A．They were in great anger. | B．They were office leaders. |
| C．They disobeyed the police. | D．They were well organized. |
| A．It worsens the road conditions for cyclists. |
| B．It sees an increase in the number of cyclists. |
| C．It brings about strict traffic rules on cyclists. |
| D．It brings forth rules to restrict their travels. |
| A．Decreasing. | B．Popularizing. |
| C．Increasing. | D．Separating. |
| A．To get more people interested in cycling. |
| B．To urge officials to protect the rights of cyclists. |
| C．To show the government’s concerns for cyclists. |
| D．To present the virtue the cyclist protesters show. |
