Ivette Singh hardly bothers to walk on the sidewalk on her way to work in Midtown Manhattan anymore. Too many people, too little space. Not enough patience.

Instead, Singh can be found on the wrong side of the curb as she makes her way from Pennsylvania Station to her job on Third Avenue near 40th Street, and then back again. She prefers dodging yellow cabs and bicyclists to navigating sidewalks teeming with commuters, tourists and cart-pushing vendors, all jostling for elbow room.

薇特．辛格去曼哈頓中城上班，幾乎再也不走人行道了，因為人太多，空間太小，耐心也不夠。

相反地，當辛格從賓夕法尼亞車站走到她位在第三大道上、靠近四十街口的工作地點，以及回程，可見到她走在馬路上的身影。她寧可閃避路上的計程車與自行車，也不願走在擠滿了爭奪動彈空間的通勤者、遊客以及推車小販的人行道上。

"I don't mind the walk, it's just the people," Singh, an account coordinator for the Univision television network, said. "Sometimes, they're rude. They're on top of you, no personal space. They're smoking. It's tough."

Singh is just one among many pedestrians experiencing a growing phenomenon in New York City: sidewalk gridlock.

在環球電視台擔任專案執行工作的辛格說：「我不介意走路，只是人太多了。他們有時候很粗魯。他們讓你難以招架，毫無個人空間可言。他們還抽菸，令人難受。」

在紐約市，許多人像辛格一樣正在體驗一個日趨嚴重的現象：人行道堵塞。

While crowding is hardly a new problem in the city, the sidewalks that cemented New York's reputation as a world-class walking city have become obstacle courses as more people than ever live and work in the city and tourism surges. The problem is particularly acute in Manhattan.

Around Penn Station and the Port Authority Bus Terminal, two of the city's main transit hubs, commuters clutching coffee cups and briefcases squeeze by one another during the morning and evening rushes. Throngs of shoppers and visitors sometimes bring swaths of Lower Manhattan to a standstill, prompting some local residents cite clogged sidewalks as their biggest problem in a recent community survey.

雖然壅擠算不上是紐約市的新問題，然而隨著在這兒居住與工作的人多過以往任何時期，加上觀光客大增，鞏固紐約世界級徒步城市名聲的人行道，已變成障礙訓練場，而曼哈頓區問題尤其嚴重。

早晚尖峰期間，在紐約兩個主要轉運中心賓夕法尼亞車站與港務局公車站周邊，緊抓著咖啡杯與公事包的通勤者摩肩擦踵地穿梭其間。成群結隊的購物者與遊客有時讓曼哈頓下城的大部分地區陷入癱瘓，以致一些當地居民在最近的社區調查中，將人行道堵塞列為最大的問題。

Transportation officials are taking measures to alleviate the congestion. To help accommodate foot traffic, they are adding more pedestrian plazas around the city, expanding the presence of a streetscape feature first embraced by the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

While a crowded sidewalk is simply a symptom of a crowded city, it resonates deeply because it affects almost everyone. Unlike overstuffed subways or tourist attractions like, say, Times Square, there is no going around the sidewalks. They are to New York what freeways are to Los Angeles: an essential part of the infrastructure. Sidewalks not only get people from Point A to Point B, but also serve as a shared public space for rich and poor, native and tourist alike.

運輸官員正採取措施緩解堵塞。為了方便步行，他們正在全市增設行人廣場，把最先由彭博市長政府力推的這項街景特色進一步擴展。

人行道擁擠雖然只是城市擁擠的一個症狀，卻引起很深的共鳴，因為它幾乎影響到每個人。跟人滿為患的地鐵或是時報廣場等旅遊景點不同的是，人行道是無法避開的。人行道之於紐約，一如高速公路之於洛杉磯，是基礎設施不可或缺的一部分。人行道不僅讓人們可從甲地去到乙地，還是個窮人與富人、本地人和觀光客共享的公共空間。

「叛客族」控：廣告業不理我們

Even as advertisers are embracing new configurations of families — two dads, say, or grandparents raising grandchildren — there's one group that feels left out.

Women who are childless. Or as they also call themselves, the child-free. Or even the NotMoms.

雖然廣告業主正在擁抱新的家庭結構－比方說，兩個爹，或祖父母養育孫子－卻有一個群體感覺被遺漏了。

沒有子女的女性。或者如她們自稱的，不想生小孩的女性。或甚至是「沒當媽」的女性。

According to census figures, more women in the United States are childless than at any other time since the government began keeping track in 1976. Nearly half of women — 47.6 percent — between the ages of 15 and 44 did not have children in 2014, up from 46.5 percent in 2012. And 15.3 percent of women ages 40 to 44 are childless. The numbers are growing internationally as well.

Despite these statistics, "the majority of marketing talks to adult women like they are all moms or want to be mothers," said Adrianna Bevilaqua, chief creative officer at M Booth, a public relations company.

根據人口統計數字，自1976年政府開始紀錄以來，現今美國沒有小孩的女性比任何時期都多。2014年，15到44歲的女性有近半數－47.6%－沒有小孩，比2012年的46.5%要高。而且40到44歲的女性有15.3%沒有小孩。這些數字全球都在增長。

公關公司M Booth的創意長阿德里安娜．貝維拉夸說，儘管有這些統計數字，「大多數行銷作業卻都把成年女性當成母親或想當母親的人來看待」。

Melanie Notkin has made a career of catering to women who don't have children but love them — she is the founder of the website SavvyAuntie; coined the term "professional aunt, no kids," or PANKs; and is the author of "Otherhood: Modern Women Finding a New Kind of Happiness." She wonders why companies, always eager to target a potentially lucrative demographic, seem to be ignoring this one.

The childless woman is "left off the table," Notkin said. "Advertisers don't know how to pitch to her."

梅蘭妮．諾特金靠迎合沒有小孩但喜歡小孩的女性成就她的事業。她是「精明阿姨（或姑媽）」網站創辦人，創造了「叛客族」（PANK）這個名詞，也就是「沒有小孩的職場阿姨（或姑媽）」；她也是《除了做母親以外：現代女性找到一種新幸福》一書的作者。她納悶總是急於鎖定可能有利可圖群體的企業界，怎麼好像忽略了這一塊。

諾特金說：「沒有子女的女性沒有被納入考量，廣告業者不知如何針對她們去做訴求。」

Maria Bailey, chief executive of the marketing firm BSM Media and an author of books about marketing to mothers, estimates that about 60 percent of all women shown in commercials are moms; with certain products, like toys, the percentage is much higher.

One issue is simple inertia — for years advertisers have followed research that says the mother is the main household purchaser. Bailey said mothers spent $3.4 trillion in 2015, "the largest spending consumer group in the U.S."

瑪麗亞．貝雷是行銷公司BSM Media的執行長，也寫了些如何向母親行銷的書籍，她估計，出現在電視廣告中的女性，約有六成是母親；某些特定產品，例如玩具，比率更高。

問題之一是惰性─多年來廣告客戶遵循的研究結果指出，母親是家庭主要購買者。貝雷說，2015年媽媽們消費3.4兆美元，「是美國最大的消費群體」。

Another issue is how to portray the concept of being childless. If two women are sitting on the couch chatting about, say, yogurt or a smartphone, who knows, or even cares, if they have children?

"It's an extremely complex subject," said Bridget Brennan, chief executive of the Female Factor, a consulting firm, and author of "Why She Buys." "Women may be childless by choice or by chance. It's very difficult to define assumptions about this market."

另一問題是如何描述沒有子女這個概念。如果兩個女人坐在沙發上聊到，比方說，優格或一種智慧型手機，誰知道或關心她們有沒有小孩？

諮詢公司「女性因素」執行長、著有《她為什麼買？》一書的布莉姬．布萊南說：「這是極為複雜的主題。女性沒有小孩可能是出於選擇，也可能恰巧如此，要界定這個市場的各種假設十分困難。」