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

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.

Excellent Book but in Need of Updating

I started this book without knowing the original publication date. Several chapters in, it suddenly occurred to me that some of the topics he was discussing were based upon data from the turn of the century. He does not provide a date or even year for the studies he cites. For example, Vanderbilt spends considerable space to the work of Sebastian Thrun at Stanford, who led his team to victory in the DARPA self-driving vehicle Grand Challenge. That was foundational work for self-driving, but is old hat now. Waymo and Tesla, among others, have learned much beyond that and have taken autonomous driving to a whole different level. Many, many more studies of traffic dynamics have been performed since 2008 and have provided a much better database of knowledge regarding why humans behind the wheel behave the way they do. Just search YouTube for a host of videos on what is known now.

There is simply so much more to the topic of "traffic" now, which isn't surprising.

Still, this book provides a nice foundation for understanding this subject and is delivered in a very interesting manner. I would recommend it for anyone seeking to learn about humans and driving, but would seekk out more to update yourself on current knowledge.

great listen with good narraration

What made the experience of listening to Traffic the most enjoyable?

this is one of those books where you expect to know a lot of the answers ahead of time and then the author delivers a lot of information that you didn't realize you cared about until he says it.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

lots of examples that are research driven.

What about Marc Cashman’s performance did you like?

Marc Cashman does an excellent job, i never got bored with his narration style and look forward to more books with his narration.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

yes, it was very captivating and much more interesting than i was anticipating. i listened to it as a recommendation from a friend and it exceeded my expectations.

Still relevant

Great book that has also made me a safer driver.

Audio version would have been much better with paused to clarify when changing to new topics.

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.