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. The author tackles some of driving's most persistent unanswered questions (Why does the other lane always move faster? Why do we turn into other people when we drive? Is it better to merge early or late?) and offers, if not definitive answers, at least sensible, plausible, and well-argued ones. Vanderbilt shows how road engineering and human nature sometimes clash and sometimes work in harmony; how most of us aren't as safe on the road as we think we are (and why this is so); dispels some common myths (talking on a cell phone doesn't noticeably affect our concentration; dialing does); and makes us take a long, hard look at our own driving habits. The author, a technology and design writer, has a clear, unadorned style and backs up his observations with information derived from studies conducted by a variety of researchers around the world. Of particular interest are the numerous comparisons between American driving rules and habits and those of various foreign countries and some of the experimentation being done to find ways to make the roads safer (such as ways for drivers to receive feedback about their performance from their fellow drivers). Definitely written for a general audience, the book is both informative and engaging. Expect off-the-book-page attention.--Pitt, David Copyright 2008 Booklist

This fascinating book about the psychology and behavior of humans behind the steering wheel should be read by everyone, whether they are drivers or traffic engineers. Vanderbilt, who writes regularly about technology and culture, has consulted an amazingly large assortment of behavioralists and traffic professionals; his footnotes and index total 117 pages. Is it better to queue up at a freeway lane drop, or be antisocial and cut into the waiting line of traffic at the last minute? What outrageous behaviors do drivers display at 70 mph that they would never exhibit outside their cocoons? Both drivers and engineers can learn much about themselves in this highly entertaining book. Readers will better understand principles of traffic flow, as well as why designs to improve capacity and safety often have the opposite effect. A short history of traffic congestion back to Roman times and why some countries drive on the left or right is fascinating, as are bitingly familiar examples of the "tragedy of the commons," risk homeostasis, user versus social costs and optima, and stopping cars to shorten travel times. There is no comparable book. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. D. Brand formerly, Harvard University

Traffic jams are not, by and large, caused by flaws in road design but by flaws in human nature. While this is bad news for drivers - there's not much to be done about human nature - it is good news for readers of Tom Vanderbilt's new book. "Traffic" is not a dry examination of highway engineering; it's a surprising, enlightening look at the psychology of human beings behind the steering wheels. An alternate title for the book might be "Idiots." Vanderbilt, who writes regularly about design and technology, cites a finding that 12.7 percent of the traffic slowdown after a crash has nothing to do with wreckage blocking lanes; it's caused by gawkers. Rubberneckers attend to the spectacle so avidly that they themselves then get into accidents, slamming into the car in front of them when it brakes to get a better look or dig out a cellphone to take a picture. (This happens often enough for traffic types to have coined a word for it: "digi-necking.") Exasperated highway professionals have actually tried erecting anti-rubbernecking screens around the scenes of accidents, but the vehicle toting the screen typically gets caught in the traffic jam it's meant to prevent. Moreover, Vanderbilt adds, "there is the interest in the screen itself." Drivers will slow down to look at anything: "Something as simple as a couch dumped in a roadside ditch can send minor shudders of curiosity through the traffic flow." "Traffic" is jammed with these delicious you've-got-to-be-kidding moments. Even without home furnishings to distract us, we rarely seem to get anywhere fast at any time of day. One reason, Vanderbilt reports, is that people are driving to do things they once did at home or down the block. "It is not just that American households have more cars," he writes, "it is that they are finding new places to take them." They're going someplace to eat. They're driving to Whole Foods because they don't like the produce at their neighborhood supermarket. They're going out to get coffee. (So much of Starbucks's revenue now comes from drive-through lanes that the company will put stores across the street from each other, sparing drivers "the agony of having to make a left turn during rush hour.") And they're parking. Or trying to. In a study of one 15-block area near U.C.L.A., cars were logging, on an average day, 3,600 miles in pursuit of a place to park. It's not only the number of parkers on the roads that slows things down. It's the way they drive, crawling along, sitting and waiting and engaging in other irritating examples of what one expert calls "parking foreplay." The answer? Sorry: more expensive street parking to encourage the circling hordes to use pay lots. Traffic does not yield to simple, appealing solutions. Adding lanes or roads is a short-lived fix. Widen one highway, and drivers from another will defect. Soon that road is worse than it was before. The most effective, least popular solution - aside from the currently effective, unpopular solution of $5-a-gallon gasoline - is congestion pricing: charging extra to use roads during rush hours. For unknown reasons, Americans will accept a surcharge for peak-travel-time hotel rooms and airfares but not for roads. If it's any consolation, traffic has always been bad. Vanderbilt begins with a short (I longed for more!) section on the history of traffic congestion. By studying chariot "rutways" and "wear patterns on curbstones," archaeologists have determined that the citizens of Pompeii had to contend with construction detours and one-way streets. Meanwhile, in ancient Rome, "the chariot traffic grew so intense that Caesar ... declared a daytime ban on carts and chariots, 'except to transport construction materials for the temples of the gods or for other great public works or to take away demolition materials.'" I was less surprised by all that than by the existence of so many traffic professionals. Given the seeming anarchy of traffic, there are a surprising variety of experts employed to manage it. Vanderbilt has interviewed them all, from traffic "vision specialists" (who have, of late, taken to making road signs in "incident pink") to "one of the world's leading authorities on queues." (One of!) The author is an impressively energetic researcher, even, at one point, tracking down the person who programs the Hebrew calendar into about 75 signal lights in Los Angeles. This is done to enable Sabbath-observant Jews to cross the street without pushing a button and violating the ban on operating machinery. (In New York it isn't necessary, as most crossing buttons long ago stopped working.) Vanderbilt spends much time deconstructing crashes - a problem even before there were cars. "In the New York of 1867," he writes, "horses were killing an average of four pedestrians a week (a bit higher than today's rate of traffic fatalities)" Nowadays, the cause of collisions, or one of them, is people believing they're better drivers than they are. We base our judgment on the number of crashes we've been in, rather than on the number of accidents we narrowly avoid, which, if we're being honest (or we're being me), happen just about every time we drive. Compounding this vehicular hubris is the fact that most of the driving we do appears to be safer than it is. Driving rarely commands 100 percent of our attention, and so we feel comfortable multitasking: talking on the phone, unfolding a map, taking in the Barca-Lounger on the road's shoulder. Vanderbilt cites a statistic that nearly 80 percent of crashes involve drivers not paying attention for up to three seconds. Thus the places that seem the most dangerous - narrow roads, hairpin turns - are rarely where people mess up. "Most crashes," Vanderbilt writes, "happen on dry roads, on clear, sunny days, to sober drivers." For this reason, roads that could be straight are often constructed with curves - simply to keep drivers on the ball. THIS basic truth - feeling safe kills - lies beneath many of the book's insights. Americans think roundabouts are more dangerous than intersections with traffic lights. Roundabouts require you to adjust your speed, to merge, in short, to pay attention. At an intersection, we simply watch the light. And so we may not notice the red-light runner coming at us or the pedestrian stepping off the curb. A study that followed 24 intersections that had been converted from signals or stop signs to roundabouts showed an almost 90 percent drop in fatal crashes after the change. For similar reasons, S.U.V.'s are more dangerous than cars. Not just because they're slower to stop and harder to maneuver, but because - by conferring a sense of safety - they invite careless behavior. "The safer cars get," Vanderbilt says, "the more risks drivers choose to take." (S.U.V. drivers are more likely to not bother with their seat belts, to talk on cellphones, and to not wear seat belts while talking on cellphones.) So it goes for much of the driving universe. More people are killed while crossing in crosswalks than while jaywalking. Drivers pass bicyclists more closely on a road with bike lanes than on one without My solution to the nation's vehicular woes would be to make this good book required reading for anyone applying for a driver's license. Though you could then be sure that some percentage of car crashes in America would be caused by people trying to skim "Traffic" while stuck in a bottleneck on their way to the D.M.V. Mary Roach's most recent book is "Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex."

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.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Everyone gets stuck in traffic at some point, and here freelance journalist Vanderbilt (Survival City: Adventures Among the Ruins of Atomic America) provides a fascinating look at the whys and hows of the traffic we confront on a daily basis. Deeply researched and rich in facts, his sociological study of driving habits and traffic patterns could not come at a better time. Rising fuel costs, deferred road maintenance and construction, increasing populations, and growing congestion mean that traffic is not going to get better. Among the findings here are that traffic increases by one third when parents ferry kids to school; most car crashes happen on clear, sunny days; men honk more than women; and highways can handle more cars at 55 mph than at 80 mph. In researching the book, Vanderbilt consulted government documents, behavioral journals, census and demographic data, engineering studies, and local, state, and federal transportation reports. He even provides a comparative study of traffic in other countries. 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. Recommended for all libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 4/1/08.]--Eric C. Shoaf, Brown Univ. Lib., Providence, RI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.