Traffic

Malcolm Gladwell

tom — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:56:26 +0000

“One of the heirs to the Freakonomics legacy. A very clever young writer tells us all sorts of things about what driving says about us. I kept waiting for the moment when my interest in congestion and roads would run its course. It never did.”

Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers, The Tipping Point, Blink

The Daily Telegraph

tom — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 21:36:01 +0000

“A great book about driving and traffic – perhaps the best ever written.”

— Will Self, The Daily Telegraph

The Observer

tom — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:48:02 +0000

“A richly extended metaphor for the challenge of organising competing human needs and imperfect human judgment into harmonious coexistence.”

— Rafael Behr, The Observer (UK)

Evening Standard

tom — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:47:12 +0000

“I’m very glad I read this book. It tells you a lot about traffic. But of course it does more than this. It’s really a book about human nature.”

— William Leith, Evening Standard (UK)

The Financial Times

tom — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:46:20 +0000

“Automobile traffic is one of the most studied phenomena in advanced societies. Mr. Vanderbilt has mastered all of it. Arresting facts appear on every page.”
— Christopher Caldwell, Financial Times (UK)

The Daily Telegraph

tom — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:45:13 +0000

“A fascinating read… Vanderbilt takes the reader on a lengthy, incident-packed journey for which it is a pleasure to accept the role of passenger.”

— Tim Lott, The Daily Telegraph (U.K.)

The New Republic

tom — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:43:52 +0000

“A smart and comprehensive analysis of the everyday act of driving… [T]om Vanderbilt’s book is a balanced and instructive discussion on how to improve our policies toward the inexorable car.”

— Edward Glaeser, The New Republic

The New Yorker

tom — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:23:19 +0000

“Surprising details abound. Vanderbilt investigates … complexities with zeal.”

— The New Yorker

The number of miles driven in the U.S. rose by 36% from 1988 to 2000

tom — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 16:05:57 +0000

The number of miles driven in the U.S. rose by 36% from 1988 to 2000

The Washington Post

tom — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 16:05:40 +0000

“Tom Vanderbilt’s Traffic — engagingly written, meticulously researched, endlessly interesting and informative — is one of those rare books that comes out of the depths of nowhere… Traffic gets about as close to the heart of modern existence as any book could get, yet what’s truly astonishing is that no one else has done it, at least not on the scale that Vanderbilt has achieved.”

— Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post