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

by Tom Vanderbilt (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Allen Lane (28 Aug 2008)
  • ISBN-10: 0713999314
  • ISBN-13: 978-0713999310
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.6 x 4.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 9,987 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review
"Tom Vanderbilt is one of our best and most interesting writers, with an extraordinary knack for looking at everyday life and explaining, in wonderful and entertaining detail, how it really works. It doesn't matter whether you drive or take the bus - you're going to want to read this book." James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds "A great, deep, multidisciplinary investigation of the dynamics and the psychology of traffic jams. It is fun to read. Anyone who spends more than 19 minutes a day in traffic should read this book." Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan "Fascinating, illuminating and endlessly entertaining as well. Vanderbilt shows how a sophisticated understanding of human behaviour can illuminate one of the modern world's most basic and most mysterious endeavours. You'll learn a lot; and the life you save may be your own." Cass R Sunstein, co-author of Nudge "Everyone who drives - and many people who don't - should read this book. It is a psychology book, a popular science book, and a how-to-save-your-life manual, all rolled into one. I found it gripping and fascinating from the very beginning to the very end." Tyler Cowen, author of Discover Your Inner Economist

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan
'A great, deep, multidisciplinary investigation of the dynamics and the psychology of traffic jams. It is fun to read. Anyone who spends more than 19 minutes a day in traffic should read this book.'

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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Reflections on Getting from Here to There, 24 Sep 2008
By Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)      

If you've ever been stuck in traffic alone (and who hasn't been?), all kinds of thoughts have occurred to you about how poorly the highways are designed, why drivers are so inconsiderate, what else you would like to be doing, and how to get out of this mess! Since cell phones have arrived, I regularly receive calls from my wife and children while they are stuck in traffic hoping that I'll have some suggestions for them. Tom Vanderbilt takes that vague reactions and tests them out.

It turns out that driving isn't so natural for humans, and we don't always do it right. While we are unhappy about what others are doing, we overestimate the quality of our own driving.

Even though it's very difficult for a machine to learn to drive effectively, humans get to the point where they drive without paying attention. There's a price to pay: Make the road too boring, and some people will fall asleep until awakened by a rumble strip or they crash into an immovable object such as a tree.

It turns out we lose a lot of our humanity when we drive on good roads at high speed. It's all about us then. Slow things down enough and surround us with easy ways to hurt other people, and we look people in the eye and act like a good neighbor.

The most amazing parts of the book explore ways that attempts by traffic engineers to make roads safer and to carry more traffic have backfired. The engineers, it seems, think we are rationally moving objects rather than people who like to drive around a little to get a change of pace in our lives.

He also tests out some basic subjects where there's wide disagreement, such as, should you merge as soon as possible when a lane is being dropped . . . or speed along in the closed lane until the last minute? The answer may surprise you if you are a patient person who tries to cooperate with others.

You'll also get an unexpected tip about when to do when in a skid . . . after you steer in the direction you are skidding. This might save your life.

Those who have never read the statistics about the dangerous of driving while talking on cell phones, changing radio stations, and fiddling with other devices may decide they want to be more cautious. Driving under the influence and time-of-day driving risks will also interest most drivers.

Mr. Vanderbilt visits different traffic areas around the world and explains how things work in what seems like chaos to the American visitor. I was only disappointed that he didn't talk about the effect of potholes on traffic and accidents in areas where the roads freeze.

My only complaint was that the book contained more information than I really wanted to learn on the topic of each chapter, and much of that was engineering jargon (which I can live without). A briefer, breezier read would have been more fun: Than I could have felt like I was driving in a red sports convertible with the top down on an interesting high-speed road with little traffic while surrounded by pleasant views.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable and Informative, 21 Oct 2008
By Adrian Booth (Godalming, UK) - See all my reviews
Tom Vanderbilt is a great author. He has managed to write a book about one of the most mundane, boring, simplistic topics and turn it into an exciting, interesting and informative piece of work. Every single sentence backed up with years of studies from experts in the field of traffic (yes...experts on traffic) makes for an incredibly interesting read. I won't got too much into detail but Vanderbilt cites many examples of how our eyes can easily deceive us on the road, and also talks about 'risk homeostasis' where we tend to adjust are our behaviour relative to the risks involved e.g. Wearing seatbelts = Faster driving etc. This part at the end was most interesting.

All in all, after reluctant to read it, as it was given as a present, I have learnt never to judge a book by its topic, not matter how boring or dull it may sound. It's a truly enjoyable read.

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10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Useful and fascinating, 25 Aug 2008
By Jeremy Colton (Granite City, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
As a typical American who drives to work, traffic is a huge part of my life. Why we do what we do (road rage; careless driving; passive-aggressive driving) has fascinated me for years. Vanderbilt is a journalist who went to the experts rather than trying to answer the questions himself. Some of the answers go all the way back to our evolution. Some answers seem intuitively right, if difficult to prove; many seem counter-intuitive, and some have no answers yet.

What puts this book above and beyond what I ordinarily read is how useful it is. I honestly feel I'm a safer driver for having read it and may live longer to read more great books from these insights. I can't recommend it highly enough for anyone who cycles, walks in the vicinity of cars, or drives.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Informative but also fragmented and one-sided
A book written by a journalist who is not specialized himself in its subject can be very informative but also fragmented and one-sided. 'Traffic' is all of those. Read more
Published 4 months ago by C. Wildervanck

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating read
Who would have thought that the bane of our lives could be so interesting? But traffic is mass human behaviour, and watching it (from the outside! Read more
Published 5 months ago by martinpick

5.0 out of 5 stars Instructors view
Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (And What It Says About Us)
This book is a very long rant or moan about driving put into a book, the author talks about pretty much... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Driveuk

4.0 out of 5 stars Informative and entertaining
Although described as 416 pages, the last 220 pages are the notes and references used to research the book. Read more
Published 5 months ago by S. Hall

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this book
An emotion that I had difficulty suppressing while reading this book is envy. It deals with a subject about which I have been banging on for more than three decades (Risk), and... Read more
Published 7 months ago by J. adams

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