Tom Vanderbilt

Traffic (eBook, ePUB)

Why we drive the way we do (and what it says about us)

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

Get stuck in ... Why do some people become demons when they get behind a wheel? Why does the other lane always move faster? Why do New Yorkers jaywalk (and nobody does in Cophenhagen)? And why should you never drive with any beer-drinking, divorced doctors named Fred?

Driving is about far more than getting from A to B. As Tom Vanderbilt's brilliant, curiosity-filled book shows, it's actually the key to deciphering human nature and ... well, pretty much everything. From the etiquette of horn-honking to bumper stickers you should avoid, from gridlock in ancient Rome to why getting rid of road signs actually reduces accidents, Traffic will change the way you see yourself, and other people (and not just through your windscreen).

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Penguin Books Ltd
• Erscheinungstermin: 6. August 2009
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780141923703
• Artikelnr.: 39189363

Autorenporträt

Tom Vanderbilt writes on design, technology, science, and culture for many publications, including Wired, Slate, The London Review of Books, The Wall Street Journal, Artforum, Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine and Popular Science. He is contributing editor to 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.

Inhaltsangabe

Prologue
Why I Became a Late Merger (and Why You Should Too)
Chapter One
Why Does the Other Lane Always Seem Faster?
How Traffic Messes with Our Heads
Shut Up, I Can’t Hear You: Anonymity, Aggression, and the Problems of
Communicating While Driving
Are You Lookin’ at Me? Eye Contact, Stereotypes, and Social Interaction on
the Road
Waiting in Line, Waiting in Traffic: Why the Other Lane Always Moves Faster
Postscript: And Now, the Secrets of Late Merging Revealed
Chapter Two
Why You’re Not as Good a Driver as You Think You Are
If Driving Is So Easy, Why Is It So Hard for a Robot? What Teaching
Machines to Drive Teaches Us About Driving
How’s My Driving? How the Hell Should I Know? Why Lack of Feedback Fails Us
on the Road
Chapter Three
How Our Eyes and Minds Betray Us on the Road
Keep Your Mind on the Road: Why It’s So Hard to Pay Attention in Traffic 74
Objects in Traffic Are More Complicated Than They Appear: How Our Driving
Eyes Deceive Us
Chapter Four
Why Ants Don’t Get into Traffic Jams (and Humans Do): On Cooperation as a
Cure for Congestion
Meet the World’s Best Commuter: What We Can Learn from Ants, Locusts, and
Crickets
Playing God in Los Angeles
When Slower Is Faster, or How the Few Defeat the Many: Traffic Flow and
Human Nature
Chapter Five
Why Women Cause More Congestion Than Men (and Other Secrets of Traffic)
Who Are All These People? The Psychology of Commuting
The Parking Problem: Why We Are Inefficient Parkers and How This Causes
Congestion
Chapter Six
Why More Roads Lead to More Traffic (and What to Do About It)
The Selfish Commuter
A Few Mickey Mouse Solutions to the Traffic Problem
Chapter Seven
When Dangerous Roads Are Safer
The Highway Conundrum: How Drivers Adapt to the Road They See
The Trouble with Traffic Signs–and How Getting Rid of Them Can Make Things
Better for Everyone
Forgiving Roads or Permissive Roads? The Fatal Flaws of Traffic Engineering
Chapter Eight
How Traffic Explains the World: On Driving with a Local Accent
“Good Brakes, Good Horn, Good Luck”: Plunging into the Maelstrom of Delhi
Traffic
Why New Yorkers Jaywalk (and Why They Don’t in Copenhagen): Traffic as
Culture
Danger: Corruption Ahead– the Secret Indicator of Crazy Traffic
Chapter Nine
Why You Shouldn’t Drive with a Beer-Drinking Divorced Doctor Named Fred on
Super Bowl Sunday in a Pickup Truck in Rural Montana: What’s Risky on the
Road and Why
Semiconscious Fear: How We Misunderstand the Risks of the Road
Should I Stay or Should I Go? Why Risk on the Road Is So Complicated
The Risks of Safety
Epilogue: Driving Lessons
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index