Traffic

Traffic
Author: Tom Vanderbilt 2008 286 pp
My rating: 3*
Started March 8 2009, Finished March 23 2009.

I was disappointed by this book because I was expecting it to be about the design side of road systems when in fact it is much more concerned with the psychology of the driver. Overall the book much too long and he first 100 pages or so with their constant referral to scientific studies to explain every phenomenon were nearly self parodying. On the plus side it did have exceptionally thorough endnotes. One interesting concept introduced was that of “risk homeostasis” which explains why despite a steady stream of significant safety enhancements to automobiles e.g. airbags and anti-lock brakes, overall accident rates are not commensurately lower; the explanation is that since we feel safer in the improved cars, we allow ourselves to take more risks driving e.g. drive faster and talk on a cell phone.

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 Conventional wisdom of traffic engineers can be completely wrong. Example is that clearing roadsides of potential obstacles and distractions makes them safer; but studies have shown that accident rates can be higher on such stretches than on adjacent uncleared stretches. Theory is that drivers are more engaged in a more challenging environment which makes them drive slower and less complacent. (209-210) 

 Despite the signs often warning of large penalties for striking a worker (or pleas like SLOW DOWN, MY DADDY WORKS HERE), they are much more dangerous for the drivers passing through them than for the workers--some 85 percent of people killed in work zones are drivers or passengers. 
DG: wrong conclusion--probably far more than 85 percent of the people in the construction zone are drivers so statistically construction zones are more dangerous for the drivers than the workers in them. 

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 In 1969, nearly half of American children walk or bike to school; now just 16 percent do. (16)  

 So much time is spent in cars in the United States, studies show, that drivers (particularly men) have higher rates of skin cancer on their left sides. (17)

 The junction of the San Diego and the Santa Monica freeways is the most congested in the United States. (114)