Traffic

Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)

By: Tom Vanderbilt

Narrated by: Marc Cashman

Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

Would you be surprised that road rage can be good for society? That most crashes happen on sunny, dry days? Or that you can gauge a nation’s driving behavior by its levels of corruption? These are only a few of the remarkable dynamics that Tom Vanderbilt explores in this fascinating tour through the mysteries of the road.

Based on exhaustive research and interviews with driving experts and traffic officials around the globe, Traffic gets under the hood of the everyday activity of driving to uncover the surprisingly complex web of physical, psychological, and technical factors that explain how traffic works, why we drive the way we do, and what our driving says about us. Vanderbilt examines the perceptual limits and cognitive underpinnings that make us worse drivers than we think we are. As Vanderbilt shows, driving is a provocatively revealing prism for examining how our minds work and the ways in which we interact with one another.

Ultimately, Traffic is about more than driving: it’s about human nature. This audiobook will change the way we see ourselves and the world around us. And who knows? It may even make us better drivers.

©2008 Tom Vanderbilt (P)2008 Books on Tape

Thorough and Interesting Look at Driving Behaviour

This book covers a significant amount of detail about driving behaviour and traffic outcomes from that behaviour. It is more about human behaviour and psychology than traffic engineering and it takes a wide, international view on approaches to solving traffic problems, including considerable historical context. I found it very interesting, with a wide range of topics and well-researched answers to questions about how to be safe on the road, including input from many experts in the field. It presents safety data without being preachy, and it maintains the relatable style of a non-expert while providing the largely non-judgmental approach of a sociologist.

This book was engaging to listen to despite the amount of statistics and numbers involved. Although the conversational, personal style of the author helps provide that feel, the narration also was well-done and contributed to keeping me listening for extended periods at a time.

Overall, this book is thorough in its depth and a good mix of reinforcement of common sense and surprising results of studies on driving behaviour. It is a little dated on its discussion of self-driving cars, which have become significantly more sophisticated since the book was written, but otherwise it is relevant and modern. I would recommend it to anyone interested in human behaviour, especially if, like me, you listen to audiobooks while sitting in stop-and-go gridlock on your commute every day.

Great book

This is the book for you if you want a in depth breakdown of everything around traffic. From the engineers who design our road systems, to how and why some of our attempts to fix known issues don't work out in the real world.

If Traffic was Simple, It Would not Exist

I am a technology professional and I enjoy reading about topics outside of technology and applying them to my problems. This book is explicitly about "traffic", but its really about people. As the book says, "you are not IN a traffic jam, you ARE the traffic jam".

The first part of the book is pure psychology and provides the necessary backdrop to understand the rest of the book. Ever wonder why those stupid lights try to stop you from entering the freeway when you want to? Are you an early merger or late merger and would you like to now which is better? This book is for you.

Play at 1.25x. It's more tolerable.

Well researched and interesting info. The reader's cadence is too short so it's better to play it at a faster speed.

Bus Drivers

This book could had been better if there was illustrations on the different types of traffic. Diagrams with traffic patterns would had been nice. I like the information that was presented, but let's face it, most drivers seems to get their license out of a Cracker Jack box, including most public bus drivers, which I encounter daily because I take the bus.

"Traffic" was okay to listen to. I needed an informational book. Should they sell this book at the DMV, probably not, but they should print some of the tips and facts that Tom Vanderbilt covers.

why driving is so frustrating

a thorough validation of all my cursing. all the reasons most humans SHOULD NOT DRIVE. unfortunately there are no solutions.

Interesting sights about traffic

Narrator: Excellent

The book is easy to understand.

It gives insights about traffic that you might be considering for the first time.

I guess that this book can make your driving more safe as it is representing the different factors and limitations that affect the process.

This book is a must for civil engineer graduates, traffic engineers, transport planners and any one who is concerned about traffic.

Good but slightly longer than needed.

The book itself could've been abridged just a bit towards the end, but overall very good.

Love it.

Every driver must listen to this book. Me myself I listened to it twice and thinking of a third.

Boring and comes to no conclusions

The author just quotes from other peoples research. There is no passion behind the topic and is merely a dull collection of facts from haphazardly conducted research. I could not finish listening as I couldn't make it seem worth my time - not worth it!