Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jul 2008
416 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
Driving is a fact of life. We are all spending more and more time on the road, and traffic is an issue we face everyday. This book will make you think about it in a whole new light.
We have always had a passion for cars and driving. Now Traffic offers us an exceptionally rich understanding of that passion. Vanderbilt explains why traffic jams form, outlines the unintended consequences of our attempts to engineer safety and even identifies the most common mistakes drivers make in parking lots. Based on exhaustive research and interviews with driving experts and traffic officials around the globe, Traffic gets under the hood of the quotidian activity of driving to uncover the surprisingly complex web of physical, psychological and technical factors that explain how traffic works.
"Vanderbilt heightens awareness of an institution and its attendant behaviors that are all too often taken for granted." - Publishers Weekly.
"Anyone who drives will not be surprised overall but may be shocked at some of the analysis that is presented here for the first time-and may become a safer driver because of it. Even pedestrians are affected by traffic and should read this book." - Library Journal.
"Fluently written and oddly entertaining, full of points to ponder while stuck at the on-ramp meter or an endless red light." - Kirkus Reviews.
"This may be the most insightful and comprehensive study ever done of driving behavior and how it reveals truths about the types of people we are." - Booklist.
"Tom Vanderbilt uncovers a raft of counterintuitive facts about what happens when we get behind the wheel, and why." - BusinessWeek.
"A literate, sobering look at our roadways that explains why the other lane is moving faster and why you should never drive at 1 p.m. on Saturday." - GQ.
This information about Traffic was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Tom Vanderbilt writes about design, technology, science, and culture for Wired, Slate, The New York Times, and many other publications. He lives in Brooklyn and drives a 2001 Volvo V40.
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