Traffic: Why we drive the way we do (and what it says about us) - Softcover

Vanderbilt, Tom

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0713999322 ISBN 13: 9780713999327

Publisher: Penguin, 2008

Synopsis

Why does the other lane always seem to be moving faster? What does the way you drive say about you? Is the road a microcosm of society or an autonomous republic that functions according to its own set of rules? Does traffic work the same all over the world? Traffic Signals answers these and many other questions, plunging head-on into traffic, not simply as a social ill or as a design problem, but as a leading cultural indicator and a living, organic model of what physicists call "emergent collective behavior", of things which often happen for no discernible reason...

About this title

Review:

'A great, deep, multidisciplinary investigation of the dynamics and the psychology of traffic jams. It is fun to read. Anyone who spends more than 19 minutes a day in traffic should read this book.' -- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan

'An important book ... a demonstration, with dozens of examples, of the counterintuitive truth about traffic' -- Sunday Times

'Everyone who drives - and many people who don't - should read this book. It is a psychology book, a popular science book, and a how-to-save-your-life manual, all rolled into one. I found it gripping and fascinating from the very beginning to the very end.'
-- Tyler Cowen, author of Discover Your Inner Economist

'Eye-opening ... full of scads of cocktail-party factoids'
-- Time

'Fascinating ... Vanderbilt humanises his subject brilliantly ... it is a pleasure to accept the role of passenger' -- Sunday Telegraph

'Fascinating, illuminating and endlessly entertaining as well. Vanderbilt shows how a sophisticated understanding of human behaviour can illuminate one of the modern world's most basic and most mysterious endeavours. You'll learn a lot; and the life you save may be your own.' -- Cass R Sunstein, co-author of Nudge

'I'm very glad I read this book ... if you read it you'll be bursting to tell people' -- Evening Standard

'Tom Vanderbilt is one of our best and most interesting writers, with an extraordinary knack for looking at everyday life and explaining, in wonderful and entertaining detail, how it really works. It doesn't matter whether you drive or take the bus - you're going to want to read this book.' -- James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds

'Tom Vanderbilt uncovers a raft of counterintuitive facts about what happens when we get behind the wheel, and why'
-- BusinessWeek

About the Author:

Tom Vanderbilt writes on design, technology, science, and culture for many publications, including Wired, Slate, The London Review of Books, Gourmet, The Wall Street Journal, Artforum, Travel and Leisure, Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine, Cabinet, Metropolis, and Popular Science. He is contributing editor to the award-winning design magazines I.D. and Print, contributing editor to Business Week Online, and contributing writer of the popular blog Design Observer. He is the author of two previous books: Survival City: Adventures Among the Ruins of Atomic America and The Sneaker Book.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0713999322
• ISBN 13: 9780713999327
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416