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

Availability: In Stock. Ships from and sold by Boone Bridge Books.com.

Hardcover | Other formats

Description
Based on exhaustive research and interviews with driving experts and traffic officials around the globe, "Traffic" gets under the hood of the everyday activity. Ultimately, this work is about more than driving: it's about human nature.

Reviews

Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.

Publisher’s Weekly (05/19/2008)
In this lively and informative volume, Vanderbilt (Survival City) investigates how human nature has shaped traffic, and vice versa, finally answering drivers' most familiar and frustrating questions: why does the other lane always seem faster? why do added lanes seem to intensify congestion? whatever happened to signaling for turns? He interviews traffic reporters, engineers, psychologists studying human-machine interactions and radical Dutch urban planners who design intersections with no pavement markings, traffic signs or signals. Backed by an impressive array of psychological, sociological, historical, anecdotal and economic research, the author's presentation is always engaging and often sobering: his findings reveal how little attention drivers pay to the road and how frequently they misjudge crucial information. Sections on commuting distances and the amount of driving done by women versus men (guess who runs more household errands?) feel fresh and timely. Referring to traffic as "an environment that has become so familiar we no longer see it" and a "secret window onto the soul of a place," Vanderbilt heightens awareness of an institution and its attendant behaviors that are all too often taken for granted. (Aug.)

ISBN: 9780307264787 | EAN: 9780307264787
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group  | Publication Date: July, 2008

Additional Information