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tiffanywang29 's review for:
Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do and What It Says About Us
by Tom Vanderbilt
Wow. So extremely fascinating, but not because of anything enlightening about traffic (except the squareabout in the Netherlands:
Read more about it at https://thinkbicyclingblog.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/hans-mondermans-people-friendly-dutch-squareabout/)
Honestly, the highlights of the book were all in the "and What It Says About Us" parts. The analysis of why we drive the way we do is rooted so much in psychology, sociology, culture norms, social evolution, etc. I love the way that all the driving phenomena tie back into the way the world works on a very general level (GDP, corruption, and traffic fatalities all intermingle?). Though I may not have learned any tips to avoid getting stuck in traffic (or, as Vanderbilt more accurately states, be a part of traffic), I read this book much more as a reflection on the human population, which I think is a much more rewarding perspective.
On a sidenote, reading this in2016 2017 (!), I love having the gift of hindsight in some of these predictions or ponderings from when Vanderbilt published this book in 2008. Though most of what is written is still valid today, comments like "the emergence of the iPod" alert me to the rapidly changing environment thanks to technology.
Read more about it at https://thinkbicyclingblog.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/hans-mondermans-people-friendly-dutch-squareabout/)
Honestly, the highlights of the book were all in the "and What It Says About Us" parts. The analysis of why we drive the way we do is rooted so much in psychology, sociology, culture norms, social evolution, etc. I love the way that all the driving phenomena tie back into the way the world works on a very general level (GDP, corruption, and traffic fatalities all intermingle?). Though I may not have learned any tips to avoid getting stuck in traffic (or, as Vanderbilt more accurately states, be a part of traffic), I read this book much more as a reflection on the human population, which I think is a much more rewarding perspective.
On a sidenote, reading this in