Here’s my column from the Sunday paper. If you’ve already read it elsewhere, please skip on down to the comments below. Thanks.

Roadguy doesn’t write about books very often — he knows that his alert readers don’t care about the latest edition of “Pavement Analysis and Design.” But a new book called “Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)” by journalist Tom Vanderbilt delves into many of the conundrums found on our roads, and it might change the way you drive.

I know this because I started reading the book last weekend, then headed out on my most recent road trip — and quickly realized I was embodying some of the book’s many truths:

•Most drivers think they’re above average.
•Reflective paint makes driving at night feel safer than it really is.
•Drivers talking on cell phones don’t look around enough.

Guilty, guilty, guilty.

“The sad truth is that the way we drive is responsible for a good part of our traffic problems,” writes Vanderbilt, who was in town this past week for media events. (This included Vanderbilt and Roadguy, who knew each other vaguely in college, going for a drive — a very, very careful drive.)

Minnesota pops up several times in the book — our experiments with ramp meters, the large keep-your-distance dots that inspired someone to paint a Pac-Man on Hwy. 55 near Medina Buffalo, and the inevitable reference to Lake Wobegon when discussing the many studies in which a majority of drivers described themselves as superior.

Human failings play a key role in safety and congestion problems, Vanderbilt says. Drivers have to process an incredible amount of information, and convincing them to pay better attention is almost impossible because they, of course, aren’t aware of how much they’re missing (until they crash).

We’re also not very good evaluators of risk. Drivers of cars tend to be wary of large trucks, for example, but for the wrong reason — Vanderbilt says cars are usually to blame when trucks and cars collide. And what do drivers do in fog? Get closer to the taillights in front of them, increasing the danger.

Vanderbilt did an incredible amount of homework — the book has 91 pages of notes, many of which contain readable tidbits of their own. He also jetted off to India to check out the chaos of Delhi’s streets, visited a traffic control center in Los Angeles on Oscar night and enrolled in a class taught by a former race-car driver.

He points out the pointlessness of trying to teach the other driver “a lesson” through honking or other aggressive behavior (the driver won’t change, and even if he or she does, you’ll probably never cross paths again). And he explains the value of not hunting for a close-in parking space at a big-box store (you’ll often save time if you drive less and walk more).

While Vanderbilt’s book is as well-researched as any textbook, he writes in a clear and conversational style, and the chapters are self-contained enough that readers can pick and choose among them. Just don’t choose to read “Traffic” while you’re driving; that’s why there’s an audiobook.

To read Vanderbilt’s blog, click here; to take a New York Times quiz about traffic, click here. (I got 8 out of 10 right.)

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 10th, 2008 at 7:05 am and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.