Traffic: Why we drive the way we do (and what it says about us)
Rating: 
(out of 125 reviews)
List Price:
Price: $ 30.00
Traffic: Why we drive the way we do (and what it says about us)Posted by admin on Jul 19, 2010 | 5 Comments |
Traffic: Why we drive the way we do (and what it says about us)Posted by admin on Jul 19, 2010 | 5 Comments |
Rating: (out of 125 reviews)
List Price:
Price: $ 30.00
Review by James Daniel for Traffic: Why we drive the way we do (and what it says about us)
Rating:
While the topic of the book is nominally “traffic”, the real topic is about human psychology and how it deals with the situations involving traffic. The material is chock full of “things that make you go, ‘hmm.’”
In spite of being intriguing, the information the author conveys is rarely useful information. The reader will likely be left unmoved by the author’s reasoned advocacy of late merging, for instance. Similarly, the style of writing feels like that of a news or talk show, where the announcer/host will “tease” an interesting bit of info, run a commercial, discuss things about which you don’t care, run another commercial, and then, in the last 2 minutes of air time, give you the anticlimactic answer to the story headline you found interesting enough to make you sit and watch.
Unfortunately, most of the book is like this, and the cool things that the author has to say are just that. Cool, but not quite meriting a book. Of the book’s 400 pages, nearly 100 are end notes. I am happy that the author’s work is well-sourced (books of this genre often lack sources, preferring to rely on anecdotes), but it conveys how the author had to work fairly hard to turn a very large set of disjointed facts into any sort of readable narrative.
In this regard, the author’s narrative is interesting and readable. It definitely made me keep reading the whole way through. At the end, however, I felt kind of empty and unenlightened, so I had to sit back and figure out why.
The reason appears to be because it’s like a long magazine article: interesting, longer than a newspaper story, full of interesting insights, but in the end, it’s light fare. In spite of the author’s thorough research, we really don’t know much about traffic in a scientific context, and even the scientists are forced to speculate anecdotally about why certain statistical artifacts are true.
Of the author’s many nuggets of info, I found a couple to be very interesting. Making roads safer appears to increase the accident rate, for example. There’s really nothing backing up this observation other than statistics, so anything we might derive is of questionable value, but … it appears that when a road feels safer, drivers are encouraged to drive more hazardously – because, well, it’s safer to do so. I’ll leave it to the reader to speculate what this implies in other areas of life (or to read the book and read the author’s speculations). Another nugget is along the same lines: adding more road signs and traffic controls to alert drivers (e.g., to alert drivers of pedestrians and bicycles, giving bicycles their own lane, putting up rails to allow pedestrians to only cross at intersections) isn’t nearly as effective as simply letting cars drive on roads in which there are obviously several hazards. A dead deer carcass on the side of the road appears to encourage far more safety than a deer crossing sign. Again, I’ll let the reader ponder that rather than waste time with my own unsubstantiated insights.
There are a few places where the author says/advocates things with which I expressly disagree, though I understand his motivations and reasoning for saying them. The primary item of this sort is that he explicitly says, discussing the risk due to terrorism vs. the risk due to driving, “Ironically, the normal business of life that we are so dedicated to preserving is actually more dangerous to the average person than the threats against it.”
This seems a simple, straightforward statement: 40,000 lives lost due to traffic each year, but only about 5000 killed by terrorism (total, not per year, since 1960). On the one hand, I agree with this as a sentiment, because we definitely overestimate risk in spectacular cases, while ignoring risk in mundane cases. I don’t, however, agree with the statement outside of that specific context: while it’s easy to point out the large number of traffic deaths, that ignores the massive public benefit of being able to drive anywhere, anytime. Terrorism, on the other hand, doesn’t have any accompanying net benefit.
In summary, I like this book, and it is an interesting book, but it should not be regarded as science so much as an accumulation of well-sourced statistics, interesting anecdotes, and a thoughtful discussion of an activity in which nearly all of us participate every day.
Review by Kenneth Simon for Traffic: Why we drive the way we do (and what it says about us)
Rating:
I live in Los Angeles, and my daily commute subjects me to this city’s infamous traffic. So why in the world would I want to read a book about traffic? After all, I live it every day. Well, whether you live in a crowded city or a small town off the interstate, Traffic turns out to be an interesting, worthwhile look at humans and their machines, what happens on the road, and why.
Traffic hooked me right off the bat with its provocative starting point: you’re on the freeway in the right hand lane. A sign indicates that the lane is ending and you should merge left. Do you merge at the first safe opportunity and get mad at the drivers who keep zooming past on the right until the last possible merge point? Or are you one of the drivers who waits until that endpoint, where you have to stop and wait for your turn to merge? Tom Vanderbilt used to be an early merger, but then he changed his ways. Once you read the facts behind his decision, maybe you’ll change your ways too.
Vanderbilt explores this and other conventional wisdom of the road. He also looks at traffic from an engineering point of view. For instance, how much good do all those speed limit, caution and warning signs actually do? What would happen in a busy, urban environment if we just took those signs away and let people figure things out for themselves? (It’s been tried and the results surprised me.) Have we collectively done the right thing by widening our roads, adding bike lanes, crosswalks and protected turn arrows?
By the time I reached the end of this book, I had plenty of food for thought. It’s quite possible that all the traffic planning and road engineering in our major cities has been misguided in some major ways, resulting in the disruption of neighborhoods and increased danger to driver and pedestrian alike. How do we make traffic flow more quickly on our crowded roads – or is “faster” the wrong goal in the first place?
Although Traffic may leave the reader with more questions than answers, fascinating studies and tidbits are scattered throughout the book, and Vanderbilt writes in an easygoing, humorous style. If he occasionally dwells too long on a particular point (I found some of his writing about safety a little plodding), he can be forgiven this minor sin in a book otherwise packed with information that speaks to our everyday lives.
One final note: although it was not the author’s intent, reading Traffic actually had an impact on the way I drive. I had become an angry driver, and after reading this book, I find myself much more philosophical behind the wheel, and I’ve cut way back on the pointless aggression. I will try and make that a lasting change.
Review by takingadayoff for Traffic: Why we drive the way we do (and what it says about us)
Rating:
Driving, at least in America, is an activity that is oddly personal. Our cars, the way we drive, how we handle bad traffic, are so much a part of ourselves, that we bristle, or worse, when someone criticizes our choice of car, the way we drive, or our behavior in traffic.
When I read several (professional) reviews of Traffic, it was hard to believe that they were all about the same book. The reviews seemed to reflect the personalities, the insecurities, the preferences of the reviewers. I was learning more about the reviewers than about the book. Then when I’d read the book, I found that the parts that stuck with me had not been mentioned in any of the reviews I’d seen.
For instance, I was fascinated to read about “Sabbath Timing” of traffic lights at some 75 Los Angeles intersections. From sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday every week, and on certain holidays, they are programmed to flash the walk signal every signal rotation, whether anyone presses the button or not. This is so the orthodox Jews in those neighborhoods cross the streets without pressing the button, which would be against the rule not to use any machines. The city planners considered an alternate solution that would use sensors to detect if a pedestrian was waiting to cross the street, but consultations with local rabbis determined that that would not be in keeping with the restriction.
Another tidbit: all drivers believe they are better than average. Not surprising actually, but still interesting.
A factoid that applies to more than just traffic: most people prefer one long line rather than many short lines, such as that at Wendy’s vs. the lines at McDonald’s, even if the wait is longer with the long line. We like the “social justice” of the single line, in which no one can pick the “right” line and be served ahead of those who waited longer in the slower lines.
Traffic is a thoroughly-researched book with lots of data and over a hundred pages of end notes and index. Vanderbilt knows his traffic. But so do we. So here are my own observations about traffic.
I spent many years commuting to work in the Bay Area, a 140-mile round trip, on several different shifts, and including right after the Loma Prieta Earthquake, when the Bay Bridge, a critical portion of my commute, was being repaired after a large section fell into the Bay. In all the years spent commuting, the traffic did not strike me as being especially idiosyncratic. It was awful and I hated it, but it seemed no worse or better than most places.
Las Vegas, on the other hand, is a different kettle of fish. The drivers here have a real “double or nothing” mentality. I quickly learned to hurry through all yellow lights and to check the rear view mirror before stopping at red lights. The alternative was to be rear-ended.
Avoid the temptation (difficult in Las Vegas) to make quick starts when the light turns green. Wait for at least two more cars to go through the intersection and check to see if anyone else is going to run the red. Then go. Jaywalking is very common, and so are accidents resulting from jaywalking.
In spite of all this, I continue to be surprised that school zone speed limits are religiously observed. Even at the school zone on a main street that covers several blocks, the traffic slows to 15 mph and no one cheats. I never see any police cars skulking in the vicinity, so I can’t explain this apparent anomaly. The substandard school system seems to rule out the possibility that Las Vegans care more about the welfare of their children than do other communities. It’s just one of those local quirks, I guess.
The first time we went to Rome, I fell in love. With the traffic. It was wild, uncontrolled, anarchic, insane! After a few minutes, it seemed less so. In fact, it was beautiful. Everyone was moving in a synchronized way, ignoring signs, signals, crosswalks, but completely aware of the other cars and the pedestrians. Unlike in North America, the Romans did not come to a stop unless absolutely necessary, and then for as short a time as possible. We learned, as every visitor to Rome does, that pedestrians wait for a small break in the traffic, stride confidently into the street, making eye contact or appearing stylishly aloof, your choice, but moving at a constant pace across the street. Traffic will slow slightly, move around you, and you will be incorporated into the flow. You must do what is expected, no sudden moves, no stopping in the middle of the street.
Yes, most of the drivers are driving one-handed, telefonino in the other hand. But they are all aware of the traffic around them. Here, we stare straight ahead in our individual cocoons, passive-aggressively making the other guy go around us when we refuse to acknowledge his presence.
Traffic is the perfect book to listen to while in traffic.
Review by Bradley M. Allan for Traffic: Why we drive the way we do (and what it says about us)
Rating:
In “Traffic,” Mr. Vanderbilt has done what every non-fiction writer worth her salt aims to achieve: systematically yet carefully describing an entrenched and common subject in a fresh and enlightening way. And he does so with a gusto and enthusiasm for research in a variety of fields that is, for my money, nearly unmatched in the culture today.
Amazon’s extensive interview with Mr. Vanderbilt (not to mention his own Amazon blog) provides an excellent overview of the book and its many “eureka!” moments (which you will feel compelled to read aloud to all those within earshot as you work through the lively narrative), so I will not attempt any sort of summary here. Suffice it to say that Mr. Vanderbilt covers a lot of ground: the costs, designs, modifications, and current ideas of the many industries that have a stake in Traffic, as well as the economic, social, psychological, and cultural implications of these myriad aspects.
Anyone that wishes to delve below the superficial levels of an activity and institution that we as a society have come to take for granted should read this book. It is not only well-written, comprehensive, endlessly fascinating, and breathtakingly researched, it is decidedly normative as well, and drivers of all kinds will pick up more than a few helpful tips in how to be safer, more courteous, and more aware on the road.
Review by switterbug for Traffic: Why we drive the way we do (and what it says about us)
Rating:
While reading this book, I often proclaimed aloud (things like “wow” or “aha”) and had moments of traffic clarity. The book, without preaching at all, opened up lanes of awareness in my mind regarding my own driving behaviors and how my own perceptions of myself as a driver are skewed by my limitations of vision and ego. It kind of reads like a combination social commentary/help manual/psychology book written in a witty, lively style. I was rarely bored and often enlightened.
There are many sparkling gems in this book that other reviewers have done so well at describing. I do want to point out a glaring “inconvenience.” Note that there are 288 pages of text in this 400-plus page book. The rest is endnotes. The endnotes are very interesting pieces of information either expanding on areas of text or buttressing it. This would have been more suited to a footnotes organization style, because they refer to specific passages and pages. This made it kind of laborious to absorb. It is tedious to read hundreds of bits of info referring to specific pages and paragraphs long after finishing the entire text of the book.
This was a big dud by the editor that compelled me to deduct a star because it diminished my reading experience. You finish after 288 pages and are thrust into 100 pages of info with no context! If I had known this before reading, it would have helped me to enjoy the book more thoroughly.
I wrote this review partly as a heads up to other readers who may purchase this book. Your reading experience will improve if you know in advance that every page of text has endnotes starting on page 293 (after acknowledgments).