Are you a good driver? Of course you are. I know I am. Driving is one of those things. We all do it, we think we know all about it and we all think we are good drivers. It is those other drivers out there that are the menace. Those other drivers are what can make driving so scary. Am I right? It is this overriding confidence we have that made me pick up Traffic: Why we drive the way we do and what it says about us by Tom Vanderbilt. I just had to see if anybody could explain what the story is with those incompetent drivers I keep encountering. Why can’t they all be excellent drivers like me?
I wasn’t disappointed. This book is so interesting you may enjoy it even if you don’t drive. Tom Vanderbilt has put together an exhaustive collection of information about driving and traffic generated by engineers, scientists and researchers from all over the world and has assembled it in a highly readable package. The thing I enjoyed most about this book was learning that so much of what I thought was true about traffic and driving is incorrect. Our driving is dominated by false impressions.
Think of those people who race up alongside and ahead of the merging traffic and cut in at the last second. Rude jerks who inconvenience us all? No! They are actually helping the traffic move faster by ensuring that the highway gets used in the most efficient manner possible. If we all drive like that we’ll get where we are going faster. The roads with the most accidents? They would be the ones with the most safety features. Stay in the crosswalk is good advice for pedestrians, right? Sure, but it is where most of them get killed. Drunk driving is bad, no doubt. Poor visibility and bad road conditions are dangerous too. But by far, most drivers and passengers are killed on clear dry roads with good visibility and no involvement with alcohol or drugs.
Prepare to be jolted as many of your beliefs about traffic and driving are disproved. Read about the city that took down all road signs and traffic control devices. Examine the case of the country that switched all driving to the other side of the road. Recipes for chaos? I’ll let you read the book and find out what happened. Irondequoit residents take note: there is an excellent section on the modern application of traffic circles and why they have become so popular with highway designers.
The key findings are that despite our best attempts to engineer roads and vehicles for safety and efficiency, much of what happens behind the wheel is because of psychology and perception. It turns out the biggest influence on traffic and safety is the factor that is most difficult to engineer, human nature. We are all bad drivers. The intersection of our psychology with the task of driving makes certain that it will be that way. Even more startling is the inescapable conclusion that this also causes most attempts to improve safety to eventually fail.
I like non-fiction that doesn’t just inform but brightly illuminates while keeping the reader entertained. Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt is such a book. Give it a test drive today.
April 8, 2009 at 9:00 am |
Quite an illuminating book, indeed. It drastically changed the way I look at traffic.
I have become a late merger after reading this book. I still receive angry looks from annoyed drivers, and I wish I could pull over and explain to them why they too should become late mergers.