Traffic
A New York Times Notable BookOne of the Best Books of the YearThe Washington Post - The Cleveland Plain-Dealer - Rocky Mountain NewsIn this brilliant, lively, and eye-opening investigation, Tom Vanderbilt examines the perceptual limits and cognitive underpinnings that make us worse drivers than we think we are. He demonstrates why plans to protect pedestrians from cars often lead to more accidents. He uncovers who is more likely to honk at whom, and why. He explains why traffic jams form, outlines the unintended consequences of our quest for safety, and even identifies the most common mistake drivers make in parking lots. Traffic is about more than driving: it's about human nature. It will change the way we see ourselves and the world around us, and it may even make us better drivers.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Stats for nerds
25recommend
32mentions
30people
2008–2024years
81% recommend19% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Anyone interest in the subject of traffic - I’d highly recommend the book: Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do and What It Says About Us by Tom Vanderbilt
Pretty eye opening entry point on the subject
- I'm not in the field, but I highly recommend Tom Vanderbilt's Traffic. Not a textbook, but an excellent one (and I've had people in the field speak highly of it to me).
- Supposedly more road construction doesn’t alleviate traffic, in only induces more demand (which is moderated by high traffic levels)
Source (great read if your interested in the subject): https://www.amazon.com/Traffic-Drive-What-Says-About/dp/0307...
- There’s tons of evidence that wide roads induce people to drive fast. If you want walkability then you need drivers to be scared they might scratch their side mirrors.
Tom Vanderbilt’s excellent book “Traffic” goes into depth about this.
- I enjoyed the survey that the book _Traffic_ by Tom Vanderbilt provided in the traffic engineering space.
Many of the topics discussed in the comments I see here are discussed in the book.
- Excellent book that mentions this as well as other counterintuitive facts about driving: https://www.amazon.com/Traffic-Drive-What-Says-About/dp/0307...
