◎鄭寺音

Travelling to work by bike is both good for your health and can boost a company’s profits, the Dutch transport ministry said.

荷蘭交通部表示，騎腳踏車上班對健康有益，也可提高公司獲利。

"Employees who regularly travel to work by bike are, on average, ill one day less a year than the others. Therefore they are better value," Transport Secretary Tineke Huizinga said in a statement.

交通部長懷金格在聲明中說，固定騎腳踏車上班的人，平均每年少生1天病，因此他們價值較高。

Almost a third of Dutch people bicycle to work at least three times a week.

荷蘭近3分之1國民每週至少3天騎腳踏車上班。

"If this number increases by one percent, companies can save around 27 million euros（35 million dollars）every year" in sick leave, said Ingrid Hendriksen, a consultant at TNO research centre which carried out a study on the issue for the government.

TNO研究中心的顧問亨迪森表示，「如果這個數字增加1%，公司每年可節省約2700萬歐元（3500萬美元）」的病假支出。TNO研究中心為政府進行這項研究。

Since late 2008 the government has allocated 70 million euros on encouraging people to cycle to work, transport ministry spokeswoman Anne van der Vliet told AFP.

交通部女發言人范德弗利特告訴法新社，自2008年年底以來，荷蘭政府撥款7000萬歐元，鼓勵民眾騎腳踏車上班。

新聞辭典

bike：此為動詞，騎腳踏車，與後文「cycle」用法相同。

leave：名詞，休假。例句：How much annual/paid leave do you get?（你有多少年假／支薪假？）

allocate：動詞，分配、撥款。例句：As project leader, you will have to allocate people jobs/allocate jobs to people.（身為計畫領導人，你將得把工作分配給大家。）

自由時報-980129

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