又中又英 - Pet peeves | 褚簡寧

　　Whenever I return to Hong Kong, I am quickly reminded of my pet peeve. Your pet peeve is something that especially annoys you. I have several pet peeves, including Hong Kong's rude taxi drivers. My main pet peeve is having to wait very long for a pedestrian green light to cross the road. It also annoys me to no end that the green light barely gives pedestrians time to cross before it turns red again. If something annoys you to no end, it means it annoys you very much. My personal bugbear is that the green light for vehicles is far longer than the green light for pedestrians.

　　Your personal bugbear is something that upsets or annoys you a lot. I have written about my pet peeve and personal bugbear many times before. I read a recent news article that said the Transport Department will use an AI-powered traffic light system that will cut waiting times for pedestrians by 15 to 20 seconds. But it won't start until the first quarter of next year.

　　It will only apply to a busy crossing near Victoria Park as the first stage. The AI system, which detects real time pedestrian and vehicle traffic, will be used at about 50 busy junctions in phases. Why wait until next year to start with just one busy junction? How long will it take to apply the system to all 50 areas? And why just 50 areas? Hong Kong has numerous busy junctions.

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　　每次我回香港，很容易便想起我的pet peeve。你的pet peeve就是特別惹毛你的事。我有幾樣最受不了的事（pet peeves），包括香港粗魯無禮的司機。最主要令我煩躁的（pet peeve），是過馬路時，等交通燈轉綠要等很長的時間。而綠燈轉為紅燈之前，給予行人過馬路的時間也沒幾多，這亦令我極度煩厭（to no end）。若某事物annoys you to no end，意即它非常煩擾你。令我特別心煩的（personal bugbear），是給予車輛的綠燈時間，遠多於給予行人的綠燈時間。

　　你的personal bugbear是令你非常討厭或心煩的事物。我從前曾多次寫過這些令我煩心（pet peeve）和討厭的事（personal bugbear）。我最近讀到一則新聞報道，運輸署將會運用一個人工智能驅動的交通燈系統，有望將行人的等候時間縮減15至20秒。然而，那將會在明年首季才開始實行。

　　於第一階段，它只會在維多利亞公園附近的繁忙過路處實施。那個實時偵測行人和車輛交通流量的人工智能系統，將會按階段於50個繁忙交匯處陸續使用。為甚麼要等到下年，才僅僅在一個繁忙交匯處使用？系統需時多久，才能在全部50個地區實施？又為何只得50個地區？香港有眾多的繁忙交匯處！

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Michael Chugani褚簡寧
中譯：七刻