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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
medium-paced
Challenges your ideas about what is safe and what is dangerous. Makes several points that reinforce the stupid ways our roads are designed.
Long live roundabouts!
Long live roundabouts!
The fact that anyone drives at all is now the most amazing fact ever.
I need to get a better bike. More specifically, everybody else needs to ride a bike.
I need to get a better bike. More specifically, everybody else needs to ride a bike.
informative
reflective
fast-paced
I loved this, a REALLY great read!
This is one of those books that seeks to get us all going "wow, that's counterintuitive" like Freakonomics of the Black Swan or whatever, except it's way better because it's steeped so heavily in its subject and it's a subject that applies to all of us. What Vanderbilt does here is fascinating. There's narrative flow but an accumulation of details and data and personal experience that's more dense than other similar books that I've read and yet engaging. Unlike with some business books I've read lately -- or even Freakonomics -- I never got the feeling that Vanderbilt was giving something short shrift for reasons of either ideology or space.
What could be more boring than a book on traffic, right? Well, I gotta say this manages to be not boring and not ponderous and totally germane. Of course, it will also make you realize how messed up some (or much) of the traffic planning you encounter in your normal driving life really is so ironically it may add rather than lessen your stress on the road. But then again, it's not just about environment. As Vanderbilt shows, the biggest (and most difficult to change) factor in driving is paying attention.
What could be more boring than a book on traffic, right? Well, I gotta say this manages to be not boring and not ponderous and totally germane. Of course, it will also make you realize how messed up some (or much) of the traffic planning you encounter in your normal driving life really is so ironically it may add rather than lessen your stress on the road. But then again, it's not just about environment. As Vanderbilt shows, the biggest (and most difficult to change) factor in driving is paying attention.
I really liked this book and found lots to relate to from my years of commuting in DC. Thankfully, I drive much less now and love the lower levels of stress associated with that! Unfortunately, I had to return this to the library before I finished. Hope to pick it up again soon.
I freely admit being a transpo geek, so you may not like this book as much as I do.
However, if you spend more than an hour a week in your car, you should definitely give this book a read. I suspect you'll be surprised by what studies say about some of the things you think you know about driving.
More than that, as transportation issues become more important to political discourse and campaigns, I think it will be helpful for all of us to have some background knowledge to make good voting decisions.
I found the early chapters of this book more fascinating by far than the last chapters. The early chapters focused on traffic operations, while the latter sections were more about safety and crashes. The conclusion about crashes is that humans, being imperfect beings, will occasionally crash. That's no surprise to me. Nor is the fact that safety features, while improving individual's safety, can also lead to more unsafe behavior because of the bizarre nature of our ability to perceive risk. I didn't need too many pages to know this was true.
However, if you spend more than an hour a week in your car, you should definitely give this book a read. I suspect you'll be surprised by what studies say about some of the things you think you know about driving.
More than that, as transportation issues become more important to political discourse and campaigns, I think it will be helpful for all of us to have some background knowledge to make good voting decisions.
I found the early chapters of this book more fascinating by far than the last chapters. The early chapters focused on traffic operations, while the latter sections were more about safety and crashes. The conclusion about crashes is that humans, being imperfect beings, will occasionally crash. That's no surprise to me. Nor is the fact that safety features, while improving individual's safety, can also lead to more unsafe behavior because of the bizarre nature of our ability to perceive risk. I didn't need too many pages to know this was true.
A really crazy fascinating book about the psychology of driving, the sociology behind traffic patterns and roads and all the stuff that surrounds it. A bit longish, but it’s got so much fun information that you can’t ultimately leave it alone.
Most of the book was not about how engineers make roads or cars safer or more efficient, but more about the interactions between the driver and the environment. I wasn't expecting that at all but it was really interesting. Definitely recommend the book.
I was really hoping that this book would answer such questions as why so many people don't use their turn signals or insist on driving below the speed limit in the left lane. I was disappointed in that, but did learn other interesting things, like why you drive on the right in some countries, and in the left in others. Also discussed is why people drive more safely when there are fewer traffic signs and other warning devices than when there are more. It turns out that people drive more cautiously when they don't know what to expect than when they do. Similarly, people drive more safely when the car has fewer safety devices. Unfortunately, Vanderbilt spends the bulk of the book on this point and much less on the question that his title indicated he would be answering.