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

My husband has a long driving commute, and since he has talked about the best merging techniques and other traffic trivia, I thought he would like this audio book. He said there is a lot of boring narritive and few nuggets of info. He didn't even finish listening to the CD set. I wouldn't recommend it.

Most of us spend many hours in our cars, driving to and from all kinds of places. This summer I went on long car trips to Dallas (1100 miles one-way) and Charlotte, NC, (870 miles), as well as several shorter trips around Michigan and all the normal, everyday trips. Other than the price of gasoline, and the frequent irritation over construction detours and slowdowns, we don't generally do a lot of thinking about our driving. However, Tom Vanderbilt's book, Traffic, is a fascinating and fun look at this nearly universal activity of driving.
A few of the surprising things you'll learn include:
* Why it would reduce construction congestion if all drivers practiced late merging.
* Why it's safer for a bicycle rider to ride in the street than on the sidewalk.
* Why driving on a dangerous mountain road may actually be safer than driving on a wide-open freeway.
* Why the chance of you being injured in an automobile crash is higher if you drive a new car than if you drive an older car.
* Why fewer traffic signs may actually make for safer roads.
And that's just a small sampling!
Vanderbilt writes with humor and lots of anecdotes, but this is also a serious book which examines important issues such as traffic safety and congestion. He points out that "more people are killed on roads each month than were killed in the September 11 attacks," and he explores the reasons for this (and for why society isn't more concerned about traffic deaths). Mixed in throughout the book are plenty of statistical evidence and interviews with traffic experts.
When I was in college, I thought for awhile that I wanted to become a traffic engineer. I didn't do that, but had this book been available to me back then, perhaps my professional life might have taken a very different turn! If you're looking to learn something about an activity we all engage in, I think you'll thoroughly enjoy this book!

I agree with the many other reviewers who point out that "Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)" is not a particularly easy read. It is very detailed, parts of it are repetitious and there are many extraneous minutiae, such as, for example, the names, affiliations, appearances and capsule biographies of obscure traffic researchers. Most of these details could have been omitted or put into footnotes. Speaking of which, several reviewers disliked the 90 pages of unnumbered endnotes. I actually found these quite interesting, since most of them substantially expand on the main text rather than just list references. I didn't find them at all hard to deal with--I simply kept a second bookmark at the proper place in the endnotes section.

You can't help but learn something from this book. In particular, the Law of Unintended Consequences is alive and well in the endless conflict between logical traffic engineers and the perverse, often illogical driving public. The effects of efforts to improve roadway or vehicle safety are often exactly the opposite of what well-intentioned planners anticipate. For example, contrary to most traffic planning rules, and even common sense, there is considerable evidence that removing road signs, rather than erecting more, is a good way to reduce collisions. Likewise, the elimination of barriers between roadways, bicycle lanes and sidewalks in Dutch villages led to a great reduction in collisions--dire predictions to the contrary. This is fascinating, albeit somewhat academic, stuff, which unfortunately is not very useful in everyday driving.

What IS particularly useful, however, is Chapter Nine, "Why You Shouldn't Drive With a Beer-Drinking Divorced Doctor Named Fred on Super Bowl Sunday in a Pickup Truck in Rural Montana: What's Risky on the Road and Why." Vanderbilt shows how most drivers' perceptions of risk on the road are completely wrong. For example, many car drivers think semi-trucks are the greatest danger on the road. But studies show the REAL danger arises from the car drivers' themselves, and their reactions to the presence of the much larger vehicles. The study of risk is exceptionally complicated, but Vanderbilt does a great job of putting it in terms nearly anyone can understand. He discusses, in this very entertaining and informative chapter, the risks associated with various types of vehicles, alcohol consumption, gender, sex, age, time of day, type of roadway, speed, cell phones, seat belts, and many other factors. He explains why two highly touted vehicle safety improvements--the Center High Mounted Stop Light (CHMSL) and Anti-Lock Brake Systems (ABS)--had nowhere near the effect on reducing crashes as their proponents assured the public they would have. Much of this chapter is information you can use the next time you hop into your car and head off to work or to the mall.

I recommend "Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)" if you are at all interested in the technical, psychological and sociological esoterica of automobiles, their drivers, the roadways on which they operate and the environments with which they interact. It's a bit heavy going in some parts, but it's worth sticking with to the end. You may even become a better driver from having read it.

Who knew? A book called "Traffic" that really isn't about traffic. Funny thing is, that doesn't detract much from the book. I've long looked for a book that would explain the science of traffic to me, how traffic jams happen, how they're managed, what makes them worse or better, the things traffic engineers think about that I never consider as I'm driving. I always thought it would make for a fascinating book, so when I saw "Traffic" I was thrilled to read it.

Just one problem: it really isn't about any of that.

Instead, "Traffic" might be better titled as "Driving." Which would be fine and then you would know what you were about to read. The good news is you wouldn't be disappointed, because Vanderbilt has put together a fascinating little book about how humans cope with the absurdly complex task of driving when we're clearly not designed for it. He explains how we do better than you might expect and how we frequently fail.

The end result is a solid book that presents somewhat of a bait-and-switch to its reader. I'd recommend this book for anyone who is fascinated by the idea of how humans handle driving a car and how the people who manage the roads sometimes manage us while we're behind the wheel without our even knowing it.

Sitting in traffic one often wonders about the cause of the delay and what can be done about it. The idea that drivers could still be sitting in congestion long after the cause has dissipated is fascinating and consistent with day to day observations. This book examines traffic congestion, accidents, driving patterns and the implications for road design. It is written for the casual reader rather than the specialist.

The first chapter is a long and meandering discussion of driver psychology which made me think that Driving would have been a more appropriate title than Traffic. It is more about people than about vehicles and less about the mechanics of traffic flow than about human behavior. This is both enlightening and frustrating, because the author seems to imply that much of what determines traffic cannot be quantified or rigorously modeled. This makes the tone somewhat unscientific. Much of the discussion of driver behavior relies on quotes from various authorities rather than a critical evaluation of their data. Presumably a conscious choice was made not to include charts, diagrams or equations. A pity, because the subject matter would have been better illuminated with visual aids. The examination of interesting concepts like rolling traffic jams strikes me as superficial.

The book's biggest flaw is the poor editing. The material is presented without much organization, with disparate ideas not only sharing the same chapter but often the same paragraph. Because of the meandering and halting flow (akin to downtown traffic) the author's thesis is unclear. `What is the bottom line?' one wonders. Findings of different researchers are lumped together with no effort to divide them into arguments for or against a particular conclusion or to distinguish between stronger and weaker lines of reasoning. The author presents the opinions of different experts but makes no attempt to seriously evaluate them or to present a contrary opinion. The result is a curiously bland discussion with no hint of any disagreements within the field.

In summary, Traffic examines issues of interest to any driver and touches upon interesting concepts. The lack of critical analysis and poor organization detract from what could have been a fascinating book.