Vanderbilt takes all of the geeky and arcane transportation studies that we love to bandy about here on Streetsblog -- induced demand, shared space, modal bias, you name it -- he puts them together in one place, filters through the traffic engineering and academic jargon, and the result is Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (And What it Says About Us). It's a book that deepens our understanding of car culture, transportation policy and human pscychology and belongs on the shelf next to Holly Whyte, Vukan Vuchic, Robert Caro, Donald Shoup, Jan Gehl and that Contested Streets DVD that you still need to invite some friends over to watch with you.
From Lopate's web site:
Americans spend almost as much time driving as they do eating. Tom Vanderbilt, author of Traffic,explains why we drive the way we do – from road rage, to the psychologyof traffic jams - and tells us what our driving habits reveal about us.
Vanderbilt has already done Fresh Air with Terry Gross if you want to catch that as well.
