Section 3:
The popular view when discussing urban transportation in American cities today is to decry its sorry state. Newspaper and journals are filled with talk of "urban transportation crisis," of the "difficulties of getting from here to there, " and so on at great length.
Everyone has his own favorite traumatic experience to report: of the occasion when many of the switches froze on New York’s commuter railroads; of the sneak snowstorm in Boston that converted thirty-minute commuter trips into seven hour ordeals; of the extreme difficulties in Chicago and other Midwestern cities when some particularly heavy and successive snowstorms were endured.
One reason for the talk of an urban transportation crisis in the United States today perhaps lies in a failure to meet anticipations. Many commuters expected to reduce their commuting times as systems improved, but instead found themselves barely able to maintain the status quo in terms of time requirements./ Another reason for talk of crisis, almost certainly, is the rate of improvement in the performance of urban transportation systems during rush hours has been markedly inferior to that expected during off-peak hours. Specifically, the ability to move quickly about American cities during non-rush hours has improved in a truly phenomenal fashion.
Answer:
人们议论起今天美国城市的交通，普遍都对其混乱不堪的状况持公开批评的观点。报纸和杂志充斥着谈论“城市交通危机”、“行路难”及诸如此类的话题。据报道，（交通）问题越来越糟，而且每况愈下的速度非常之快。
每个人都有自己喜欢向人叙说的可怕经历：纽约市郊铁路上的许多道岔（被）卡 / 冻住了；波士顿突然遭遇暴风雪，使得 30 分钟短途（旅程）变成了（令人难以忍受的） 7 小时的煎熬；当几场特大暴风雪连续降临时，芝加哥和其它中西部城市之间的交通变得极其困难。
人们谈论当今美国城市交通危机的一个原因，或许在于（他们的）期望未能得到满足。随着交通系统的改进，许多依赖公共交通出行的上班族期望能够缩短上下班来回时间，到头来却发现在交通上所花的时间几乎没有减少。人们谈论交通危机的另一个原因，几乎可以肯定的是，高峰时段城市交通系统功能的改进程度明显不如非高峰时段人们所期待的改进程度。确切地讲，在非高峰时间美国城市间快速通行的能力的确有了显著的改善。