The average American commuter spent 50 hours in traffic last year. As a nation, we spent eight billion hours sitting in our cars, waiting for lights to change, for the driver ahead to sneak into that parking spot, for an accident to be cleared.
去年，普通美國通勤者耗在交通堵塞上的時間為50個小時。在美國，我們花費了80億個小時坐在車中，等待路燈變化，等待前車司機駛入停車位，等待交通事故被處理好。
That's not much more time than many Europeans spend in cars. According to Inrix, a roadway and traffic analytics company, drivers and passengers in Belgium spent 44 hours in traffic last year; in Germany, 39 hours.
這并不比很多歐洲人等在車里的時間多出多少。據(jù)道路交通分析公司Inrix稱，比利時的司機和乘客去年遇上交通堵塞的時間為44小時，德國人為39小時。
Wherever it happens, new research suggests that all that sitting and waiting is exposing us to more pollutants than we'd take in if were we cruising along.
新的研究顯示，無論在什么地方，與一路暢通無阻吸入的污染物相比，坐在車里等待會讓我們暴露在更多的污染物之中。
Researchers at the University of Surrey in England took to the streets of Guildford, "a typical English town," to look at the effects of traffic on concentrations of polluting particles. They also analyzed how ventilation settings changed those concentrations inside of cars.
英國薩里大學的研究人員們來到“典型的英式城鎮(zhèn)”吉爾福德的街頭，觀察交通堵塞對污染粒子濃度的影響。他們還分析了通風裝置是如何改變車內污染濃度的。
The scientists took their measurements inside a car as it traveled on a six-kilometer loop, passing through 10 traffic intersections. They tracked the concentrations of different-size particles of air pollution ? ranging from course to fine ? at each intersection.
科學家們讓一輛車沿著六公里的環(huán)路行駛，途經(jīng)10個交通路口，并且在車里進行測量。他們在每個路口追蹤記錄了從粗到細不同尺寸空氣污染粒子的濃度。
In a car stuck in traffic, shutting all the windows and turning off the fan or heat reduced concentration doses of the smallest, most hazardous particles by up to 76 percent.
堵車時關閉所有車窗、風扇或暖氣，會讓車內危害性最強的最小顆粒物的濃度降低76%。
And while they were only at traffic intersections for about 7 percent of total commuting time on average, the time accounted for as much as 10 percent of their exposure to harmful particles. The exposure was more than six times greater in cars with open windows than for pedestrians at three- or four-way intersections.
盡管在交通路口的停留時間平均僅占總通勤時間的7%左右，但研究人員在此期間接觸的有害顆粒物卻相當于總量的10%。在丁字路口或十字路口，打開車窗的車輛接觸的有害顆粒物比行人高六倍多。
So when you're stopped at an intersection, roll up the windows, and breathe easier.
所以，當車輛被堵在路口時，關閉車窗，呼吸會更加暢通。

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