Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt

I have two things to say about this book. First, the content is really, really interesting, and I think the reason it's really, really interesting is that most of us spend a lot of time on the road, and that makes it really easy to relate to. When the author talked about why roundabouts are safer than intersections, and why increased safety measures (counterintuitively) can make things more dangerous, I wanted to photocopy the chapter and send it to the designers of the Roundabout of Many Traffic Signs down the street from my apartment in Ann Arbor. When he talked about why none of us is as good a driver as we think we are, I found myself becoming a lot more vigilant on the road, and a lot more wary of other cars. When he talked about the complexities of traffic jam, I felt some consolation in understanding my recent experience of coming to a near standstill on the I-15 for twenty minutes and then speeding up to full speed without any sign of what had caused the delay. And when he talked about the difficulty of coordinating traffic lights, I felt a little more forgiving of Provo traffic planners. A little. It was a fascinating read.

The second thing I have to say about the book is that, on the level of the writing, it felt just a little clunky. It may be that I'm hyper-attuned to the organization of writing (after all, I've spent the last seven years writing and evaluating academic papers), and so maybe it wouldn't be distracting to everyone. But I felt like, while each chapter was organized around a particular topic, the information within the chapter drifted. Not from the overarching topic, but from a coherent organization within the topic. It didn't feel like Vanderbilt always knew what he was doing, just that he had a lot of cool stuff to say.

That being said, he did still have a lot of cool stuff to say, and his tone was engaging and conversational, and I'd still recommend the book. In fact, while I wouldn't say that everyone should read this book, I would say that there's information in the book that everyone who drives a car, or lives around cars (which, okay, is everyone) should know. We put our lives on the line every time we get in our car but it all feels so mundane, and it's a little unnerving how much we don't know.