Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)

This book not only shows you where you need to improve as a driver, but helps you do so as well. It opens your eyes as to what you're doing that you didn't know you did.

Vanderbilt's book is full of interesting tidbits divided into two categories: congestion and safety. The problem with dividing the book into the two categories is sometimes the reader, and maybe the author, lose site of what the tidbits are supposed to be about, congestion or safety. For example, there is an interesting section on some experiments in Europe involving the removal of traffic signs. It turns out that this improved traffic safety, but what was the effect on congestion? Another discussion is about the use of new technology to improve safety, like car sensors to indicate a safe distance to follow another automobile. This improves safety, and maybe even reduces congestion, if everyone uses the technology. But what if the technology is inconsistently adopted?

The same section also reveals an interesting free market tilt to the author, who seems to favor sign removal. His congestion pricing discussion, a familiar free market refrain, is short. But the much longer discussion of sign removal is all about allowing people's actions to determine the rules of the road, rather than laws. The author does not connect this to free market ideology, but that's what it is. The problem with it is that most people do not have the patience for the road equivalent of creative destruction, which is car accidents.

The book spends a great deal of time on the psychology of the road. The discussion is interesting and worth the read if you have an interest in transportation issues.

Packed with more details than noontime wheels on a Los Angeles freeway, author Tom Vanderbilt's come up with a laudable work on the whats and hows of driving and drivers. Every conceivable aspect about moving vehicles and moving-vehicles on the road seems to be covered, from ABS systems, altered traffic patterns, passing 18-wheelers, photo-stops, side-view mirrors, driver attention, tolerating SUVs, congestion, re-timing traffic signals, DUI, media traffic reports, bicyclists, lane markings. Anything else? Plenty.

If you're not already anxious, as driver (or as pedestrian), about what can, does, will, might go wrong while at the wheel, this is the definitive eye-opener. We find out being in traffic is a lot more dynamic and complex an activity then we'd imagine; indeed, with the worrisome case this book makes about traffic, it's surprising we actually get to where we're going more often than not.

Actually, the author rarely gives us the "why" on we drive the way we do...but he goes off the deep end with the "how." Without many conclusions or much depth, Vanderbilt offers a complex mix of facts, hypotheses, anecdotes, premises, statistics -hundreds of them, all describing today's kind of "traffic." He's thorough, no question. Check the more than 100 pages (!) of footnotes, acknowledgements and index in the back of this information-packed edition...which could probably be a great reference book in itself. As such, the reading sometimes gets a little too "inside" and technical.

Too, "Traffic" has few solutions. "Here's an idea that didn't work...," the author might detail; but here's something that was once successfully addressed...in Belgium, he also might tell us. Matter of fact, Vanderbilt spends countless dreary pages on traffic and drivers in far-off places...like Delhi, Israel, Rome, Beijing, Mexico City, Spain, to mention just a few. He might have instead concentrated on the traffic messes we have right here...at Hollywood and Vine, State and Madison, 7th and Broadway (and places in between) instead of going to lands we never turned left in. Matter of fact, he could have completely dumped the mostly humdrum chapter on "How Traffic Explains the World." An Australian study says that "black cars crash more times than white cars." Really??

The author often points to road congestion, fatalities, crashes, lane queues, rage as mostly "driver fault"...but curiously gives a complete pass to town/city administrators, traffic engineers, and street-side enforcement whose charge it is to "keep traffic moving." Whatever cities do to alleviate their traffic jams, apparently, is always/was always just right. [Oh? Then why do we still have to contend with all the daily traffic snags? -Ah, it's we drivers.] A common use of "stop signs" as traffic control, actually on the books as forbidden in many states, is ignored. What about traffic citations; how effective are they? Are there fewer being issued? Vanderbilt doesn't say. What about all the right-turn-after-stop violations we do? Why is this allowed to go on, Tom? -And town fathers of all stripes have big plans for future hi-tek traffic management, but what about...right now? Vanderbilt stays away from analysis along all these lines....

Further, the book mostly steers clear of the common "me first" attitude people sport when driving. It's the old "I'll drive the way I want to drive" road mentality. Indeed, what of drivers who do "California rolls," ignore red lights and speed limits, pass on the right, tailgate and cut-off cyclists...with impunity? Notably, Vanderbilt says drivers do do all this but pretty much skips how we might effectively reduce the number of infractions. -Is it because "fewer" traffic tickets are in fact being written, encouraging masses of drivers to take chances while at the wheel? A closer look's not in this book....

Vanderbilt frequently uses a sobering data-base-like style. To be sure, there are enough particulars for the book to be a footnote in someone else's...such as: "...according to estimates, men die at a rate of 7.3 deaths per million miles; for women the rate is 1.3. Men die at the rate of 14.51 deaths per 100 million trips, while for women it's 6.55. And crucially, men face .70 deaths..." and on and on. Fascinating? [Page 255]

"Traffic" is loaded with specifics that'll probably matter more to psychologists and behaviorists than to ordinary drivers just trying to smoothly get to Point B. Yet, as the reader veers around some of the yawn-filled stats (that are everywhere) and global studies (on every other page)...the comprehensive work becomes readable, useful, however sometimes dry. As we learn more than we ever thought there was to learn about cold traffic in 250+ pages, it's a mildly enjoyable read. -I'd say the book's doing 45 in a 55-Zone.

As I commute about 15 miles each way I have a lot of time to look at Traffic (the real stuff, not the book) in Houston. So I had all sorts of theories about why people do the things they do. This book confirmed some of my theories (so the book was right!) contradicted others (the book must be wrong!) and left some up in the air.

There is plenty of information here, and I would probably only recommend this book to others who are as obsessed about traffic as I am. Also, whenever someone does some research, Tom names a "law" after him. Cute, but it got a little tiresome after a while.

Probably not a book to read straight through, but an excellent source of information about your daily drive (and your DOT dollars!)

As the subtitle of the book indicates, Tom Vanderbilt's well-researched book says as much about us as drivers, individuals and groups as it does about the phenomenon and mechanics of traffic itself.

The over-used term "thought leadership" applies here in a very real way. Vanderbilt has tapped into incisive opinion-makers and researchers over a surprisingly large collection of disciplines. He skillfully weaves in expert opinions in sociology, biology, economics, mathematics, engineering, politics, business and other disciplines to lay out the conundrums and contradictions of congestion. As he quotes a GM engineer - of all the problems the car industry faces (energy, safety, business model, congestion), the most intractable one is congestion. The internal combustion engine could be rendered obsolete tomorrow, and congestion probably gets worse.

I listened to the audio version of this book. Dan Slavin does a good job communicating Vanderbilt's passion for his subject. He also brings out much of the book's playful, subtle humor.