交通建設究竟是在建設什麼？Transport what to where?

在一篇關於戶外休閒的文章「保存的美學」中，李奧帕多教授寫著，「所謂發展休閒旅遊，並非將道路建到風景優美的地方，而是讓人的心靈能敏感地感受到自然的美好。 」

In the essay on outdoor recreation, 'Conservation Esthetic,' Professor Leopold wrote, 'Recreational development is a job not of building roads into the lovely country, but of building receptivity into the still unlovely human mind.'

台灣的總面積大約36000平方公里，山林就佔了百分之三十。中央山脈由南到北徹底阻隔了台灣的東邊和西邊，不但阻擋了來自太平洋的颱風，也阻擋了來自西方的入侵者。自從台灣被中國和日本殖民之後，東西方的交通對於地區發展、政府控制、以及對自然資源的搜刮就非常重要。

The total area of Taiwan is about 36,000 sq. km, and mountains account for 30% of the surface area. The Central Mountain Range has been an important barrier stretching from north to south. It stops typhoons approaching from Pacific Ocean going to the western plains and stops western invaders from going to the eastern areas. Ever since Taiwan was colonized by China and Japan, transportation between the east and the west has played a critical role in the local community development, government control, and natural resource depredation.

自從1871年牡丹社事件後，中國清朝政府就開始「開山撫番」的政策。不過1875年中日戰爭之後，台灣成為日本殖民地，換成日本在台灣建西部鐵路、北迴公路、花東線鐵路等等。國民黨1947年來台灣之後，也陸續建了三條橫貫公路以及南北迴鐵路，整個台灣有一個環狀的鐵路網。

For example, after the Mudanshe Incident in 1871, Chinese government implemented the ‘Kai Shan Fu Fan’ policy, to go into the mountains and the east. Later in 1875, after Japan took over Taiwan, Japanese government built not only railways in the western plains but also roads and railways to the eastern areas. After Kuomintang took over the regime from Japan in 1947, three cross-island highways were built and a circular railway around Taiwan was finished.

最近這一陣子，台灣人討論三個重要的交通建設：高鐵（已完成）、北宜快速道路（已完成）、以及還未敲板定案的蘇花高。

These days, Taiwanese have been discussing three important transportation projects: Taiwan High Speed Rail (finished), Taipei-Yilan Freeway (finished), and Yilan-Hualian freeway (decision not final yet).

台灣之前的經濟發展主要是在西岸平原，所以長久以來一直有壓力要求加強東西兩邊的交通。而現在，人們不只要公路，還要快速道路或是高速火車，如此一來不管從台灣的那個角落都可以當天來回其他任何地方。

For decades, Taiwan's economic growth mainly focuses on the western plains, and there has been pressure to have more efficient transportation from western plains to eastern areas for a long time. And, nowadays, people ask not only 'highway', but 'super-highway' or 'high-speed rail,' so that Taiwanese can travel back and forth to anywhere in Taiwan in one day.

黑貓說，台灣交通變得更快速便利後，心中的那張台灣地圖似乎也跟著縮小不少。

Blackcat said, 'when the transportation becomes faster and more efficient, the map of Taiwan in my mind seems to get smaller and smaller.'

Chieftain也說，我以後應該會經常使用高鐵吧，以我所處地區來看，坐高鐵是比搭飛機更好的選擇。而且搭飛機的話，要從松山出來，我倒不如在火車站出來還比較省錢、方便一些。

Chieftain also said, 'I would probably take the High Speed Rail more often in the future; from where I am located, taking the high speed rail is a better choice, comparing to taking the plane. More, if I took airplane, I would come out from Sung Shan Airport, and the transportation from the airport is more expensive and less convenience than from the train station.'

感謝現代科技，我們的夢想才有機會實現。舉例來說，台灣的雪山隧道（長度為世界第五）可能在工程難度上是名列前茅，因為要貫穿台灣北部最大的山脈：雪山，這條隧道花了十五年完工，十三個人員因公去世（七名泰國人六名台灣人，另有三名台灣人員重傷，根據榮光電子報），以及一台全斷面挖掘機（整個被破壞）。Discover頻道有一集節目就在講雪山隧道的故事：人類創造的奇蹟：雪山隧道。

Thanks to the modern technology, our dreams have chance to come true. For example, Taiwan's Hsuehshan tunnel, world's fifth longest tunnel, probably one of the top most difficult projects to complete in the world. It penetrates into Hseuhshan, the largest mountain in northern Taiwan; the project took 15 years, one tunnel boring machine, and (based on Veterans affairs commission) thirteen workers' life (seven Thai people and six Taiwanese), and resulted in severe injury of three Taiwanese workers. Discovery produced a movie about the story: Man made marvels. Taiwan's Hsuehshan tunnel.

Wisely說，「在以往開車，大概要花費約兩個半小時，而現今只要40分鐘便可到達。這個對滿多在台北工作的人，或是想到宜蘭去觀光遊憩的外縣市遊客來說，真的相當地方便。畢竟對於離鄉在外工作的我們，這條高速公路還是充滿的便利性！我在未來購車之後，可以更常回宜蘭探望父母，也不需要配合火車的時間通勤。」

Wisely said, 'it takes only 40 minutes to go to Yilan from Taipei now, and it was 2.5 hrs in the past. For many people working in Taipei or people who want to spend their vacation in Yilan, it is much more convenient now. For us who work in another city, this freeway is full of convenience and efficiency. If I owned a car in the future, I could visit my parents more often in Yilan, and my schedule would not have to be based on the train schedule.'

赤子童心說，「要是講"人定勝天"太武斷了。這似乎小看了天地自然的力量。但是人所展現的智慧毅力以及堅忍不拔，造就了雪山隧道的誕生。」

Children's mind said, 'it is too arbitrary to say that man will triumph over nature. These words underestimate nature's force. However, it is our knowledge and will that contributes to the tunnel birth.'

雖然很多人快樂地擁抱便捷的交通，越來越多的台灣人開始質疑建築道路的必要性，尤其當工程對環境影響很顯著的時候。

Although many people embrace the efficient transportation happily, more and more Taiwanese question the necessity of building roads, especially when the disturbance to the environment is obvious.

當雪山隧道在施工時，有許多在地層當中的水流失了，在當時嚴重增加工程的困難度。隧道開始使用後，還是有水一直流失。國工局的報告指出：目前由南洞口監測總湧水量約600 l/sec 以下(36 m3/min)...此與日本石井政次與佐久間文彥(1973,1977)對日本全國主要鐵路隧道（273個案例）之長期湧水量所做的調查分析結果，統計出長期湧水量與隧道長度之關係圖相比較，可發現雪山隧道單位長度之湧水量並無特別。而根據中央大學黃俊鴻所主持的報告，隧道湧水對水庫進流量無明顯之影響。即使如此，人們還是憂心隧道的開挖是否會造成水資源的短缺。

When Hsuehshan tunnel was under construction, lots of water inside the geology structure was lost, which increased the difficulty in constructing the tunnel. After the tunnel is open, there is still water loss everyday. Based on Ministry of transportation and communications Taiwan area national expressway engineering bureau, 36 m3 water is lost every minute. Although based on the same bureau, the amount lost is not particular significant compared to the tunnels in Japan. More, based on Chun-Hung Huang's report, the water lost is not related to the amount of water flowing into the reservoirs. Even so, people are still worried about the possibility of the water resource shortage as a result of tunnel construction in the future.

劉克襄說，「大量流失的地下水，到底從何而來。失去這些水後，包括大尾山在內，周遭山林是否仍能跟過去一樣，足以積蓄豐富的水源。整個微區域的雨量，能否經年正常。這些或那些不可預測的嚴重結果，以目前的科學知識，都沒有人敢掛保證，未來恐怕也難有明確的答案。」

Ke-Hsiang Liu said, 'lots of underground water is disappearing, where does the water come from? After losing the water, we don’t know if the mountains and the surrounding forest could still store abundant water. We do not know if the local climate (rainfall) would still be the same. And, based on our current scientific knowledge, no one could predict the severity of the outcome, and an exact answer might still not be feasible in the near future.

Momoge討論這些工程計畫案背後的心態：
如果公共工程的思維是站在發展工商那一面，就會有蘇花高，改天還會有花東高。站在自然那一面，就不會有蘇花高，而是強化現有交通，避免進一步破壞，甚至想辦法復原以往的破壞。
現在蘇花高提出來了，表示「政府就是這樣想」，這很糟糕，因為「內部已經定案了」，不過還沒蓋，還有扭轉的可能。

Momoge discussed about the mindset of people making decision for these constructions: if the mindset behind the public projects leans toward the business/ economic development, then there would be Yilan Hualian freeway, and Hualian Taitung freeway would come shortly; if the mindset leans toward nature, then there would not be highways, rather, the focus would be on reinforcing the current highway structure, to prevent further destruction, and probably even try to reverse the existed destruction. Now the proposal of Yilan Hualian freeway is out there. This is terrible, as ‘the internal decision’ is made. However, the construction has not started yet, and there is still possibility to reverse the decision.

一封花蓮孩子的公開信：
過去的開發建設或許讓我們經濟起飛，但也讓我們經歷了許多大自然回報的慘痛代價，更何況要以高速公路帶動經濟的方式已經過於老舊，也有許多實例證明高速公路不等於經濟發展；另外一些人認為花蓮需要方便的交通，但我們認為高速公路絕對不是唯一的方式，科技進步，有更多元的方式可以 增加來到花蓮的便捷性，別讓大公路主義貫徹整個台灣。最重要的，蘇花高這樣的建設具有不可恢復性，當開工後，所造成的破壞將無法彌補回來，縱使再厲害的生態工法，還是要開隧道、建馬路，沒有人可以預估對土地造成多大的傷害。

A letter from people in Hualian： The constructions we had before may be the reason for our economic growth, but it is also the reason for the price we pay for many natural disasters. Furthermore, relying on highway for economic growth is an old strategy, many examples proves that highway development is not equal to economic development. Some people believe Hualian needs a more convenient transportation, but we believe that building highways is not the only choice. With technology advances, there are many alternatives to improve the convenience and the efficiency to come to Hualien. There is no need to let 'highwayism' spread all over Taiwan. Most importantly, the damage to building Yilan Hualian freeway is irreversible. Once the construction starts, regardless of the advancement in our construction methodologies, the destruction can’t be repaired and no one could predict the severity made to our land.

當許多人加入反蘇花高的連署時，Yenwen 有一些不同的看法：
人權、環保意識逐漸抬頭，很多人開始支持公益議題，或許他們覺得支持這些議題才是正義、有道德、人民素質提升的表現，但我不禁要問：
當你在連署這些公益議題時，對於他們的論述，你有能力辨別真偽嗎？
你瞭解政府的政策嗎？
台灣是否已先進到，足以接受「文化、環保高於經濟發展」？
你能提出更好的政策嗎？

When many people cosign to fight against the freeway constructions, Yenwen has different point of view: when human right and environmentalism start to get more attention in our society, more people start to support public topics. Perhaps they feel supporting these topics is the right thing to do, an ethical thing to do, it is a way to show self-quality improvement. But, I can’t stop asking:
when you cosign for the public issues, do you have the ability to distinguish the legitimacy of their proposal? Do you understand the government’s policy? Has Taiwan progressed enough that we can afford to have culture and environment playing more important roles than economic growth? Do you have better proposal?

這些問題都不是輕易回答的了的，不過台灣鐵路局似乎試著回答最後一個問題，今年五月之後會有「太魯閣號」往返台北和花蓮。根據台灣火車介紹，台鐵引進此型車的主要目的是為克服宜蘭線、北迴線彎道多的特性，以縮短台北花蓮間的行車時間至兩小時內。

Well, these are tough questions. But maybe Taiwan Railway Administration tries to answer the last one. There will be Taroko Train running between Taipei and Hualian starting May of 2007. Based on Introductions of trains in Taiwan, the reason to use this kind of trains is to solve the problems for the curves in the railways between Taipei and Yilan, and to minimize the commute to be within 2 hours.

追根究底，我們還是要問「交通建設究竟是在建設什麼？」假如我們有很多道路了，下一步我們想要幹嘛？李奧帕多說，我們應該要打開我們的心讓我們更親近自然。那麼，假如我們有很多錢了，下一步我們想要幹嘛？也許我們會想要活的更快樂更有意義，並且我們的子孫也能活的更快樂更有意義。

To get to the bottom of the questions, we still want to ask, 'transport what to where?' If we have a lot of roads, what do we plan to do next? Leopold said, we should open our heart, to be closer to the nature. Then, if we have a lot of money, what do we want to do next? Perhaps, we want to live a more meaningful and happier life, and then our offsprings can live a happier and more meaningful life.

在2:30AM的部落格提到，慈濟的證嚴法師在一個電視節目提到：台灣也沒多大，高速公路一條又一條，像我們這個地方，這樣到底山要破壞多少？樹要砍伐多少？水資源要壟斷多少？都不知道！...我只能呼籲大家克己復禮！如果要救地球，要多種樹，不要再破壞了！要開的路，也已經夠多了。

Mentioned in 2:30AM's blog, Tzu Chi's leader, Dharma Master Cheng Yen said in a TV show, 'Taiwan is small, but we build more and more highways. A place like this, how much destruction to the mountains we may make, how many lumbers we may cut down, and how much water resource we may lose to build the highways? We do not know!...I can only ask all of us to abnegate our desire and preserve proprieties. If we want to save the earth, we need to plant instead of destruction. The roads are enough for us.'