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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
This book came along at just the right time for me; I'm easing my way back into driving after more than fifteen largely car-free years, and I've been thinking a lot about cars and people and how they interact. It was a fascinating read in parts and I wish I could give copies of it (or at least substantial excerpts) to every person in Seattle who is involved with traffic systems. Some very interesting ideas and phenomena are discussed and documented, ranging from the obvious (speed kills; drinking and driving don't mix) to the counter-intuitive yet demonstrably true (more roads create more traffic, not less; roundabouts are safer than intersections; fewer, not more, crashes happen on roads where there's foot, bike or other traffic in addition to cars) to the undeniable-yet-unlikely-to-be-welcome (it really is dangerous to talk on a cell phone while driving, even with a hands-free headset--it's about attention, not hands; near misses are a more accurate gauge of driving skill than accidents; even though we complain about the traffic, we *are* the traffic).
Vanderbilt did extensive research and reports it perhaps a touch too exhaustively (three-quarters of the way in all the studies cited started to blur together for me; there's also a fair amount of jargon that isn't clarified for the reader), but there's a lot of food for thought here about how people behave when they're in cars, and I will no doubt be irritating my friends with fascinating facts gleaned from the book for months to come.
A minor quibble (and not the author's fault): the fact that there are extensive notes to the text isn't apparent unless you flip to the back of the book. Oh, and full disclosure: the author and I were once co-workers, almost twenty years ago, but haven't been in touch since then.
Vanderbilt did extensive research and reports it perhaps a touch too exhaustively (three-quarters of the way in all the studies cited started to blur together for me; there's also a fair amount of jargon that isn't clarified for the reader), but there's a lot of food for thought here about how people behave when they're in cars, and I will no doubt be irritating my friends with fascinating facts gleaned from the book for months to come.
A minor quibble (and not the author's fault): the fact that there are extensive notes to the text isn't apparent unless you flip to the back of the book. Oh, and full disclosure: the author and I were once co-workers, almost twenty years ago, but haven't been in touch since then.
Absolutely fascinating! Definitely made me think about driving from an entirely new perspective - and I will never drive while talking on the phone again...
It was interesting. I think I'll become a late merger. I found it funny that with all the talk of using cell phones while driving, I was listening to an audiobook, which really isn't much better.
informative
slow-paced
challenging
informative
slow-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
I don't know, I couldn't get into this one. Bits and pieces of it were interesting but I found myself uninterested in the middle of chapters and skimming pages, which I rarely ever do. There was some interesting stuff but overall it just made me sleepy.
Wasn't vibing with the narrator and it's a 14 hour audiobook so I decided to cut my losses early.