Book Examines "Ins" and "Outs" of Traffic Congestion

“Why are you cutting me off? This isn’t the merge point!” “This moron is following too closely, what is he thinking?” “Where are all these people going, and why are they in my way?”
These are all questions familiar to anyone who has driven in traffic. These questions are well answered in Tom Vanderbilt’s best selling book Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us). The book focuses on a topic near and dear to GVF Transportation - traffic congestion. Vanderbilt presents very complex and technical subject matter in a simple to understand format.
Vanderbilt examines how tens of thousands of ants are able to move in and out of a colony without any interruption, congestion or backups. In his comparison, he looks at the relatively small number of freeway travelers, and what prevents humans and autos from acting more like ants.
Ever wonder how all those movie stars are able to make it on time to the Academy Award Show? The author interviews Los Angeles traffic management officials to unveil how it is done. These, as well as topics such as historic human commuting patterns dating back to ancient Rome are discussed, and shed light on the distance we travel between work and home. He explores the notion of how building safer roads harbors inherently unsafe driving practices. Although the topics individually may appear dry and technical, Vanderbilt presents them in such a way as to tell a compelling story about traffic congestion.
Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) should be required text for any civil and traffic engineer, as well as planners, highway and transit officials, police, highway department officials, and pretty much anyone that plans, designs, builds, maintains, and uses our roadways. It is a compelling, interesting, and at times, funny, commentary on an activity we all do daily.