We’re a little off topic here, but just a little. I came across Traffic: Why We Drive The Way We Do, a book by Tom Vanderbilt today in a little review at the International Design Magazine blog and it looks pretty interesting. A 425-page psychosocial examination of the past century of driving practives, Traffic looks at traffic from every angle-economic, architectural, engineering, and its quid pro quo linkage with urbanism. As it packs all the info together, it ultimately asks whether the human race can master traffic-and in my mind it raised the question of how GPS technology could play a key role in this. Interestingly though, Vanderbilt says that even with road sensors and real-time traffic data playing a role in many of our commutes these days, game theory dictates that drivers will simply jam up all alternative routes as the technology becomes ubiquitous. Something apparently dubbed by one professor “the self-destroying prognosis”, rendering our beloved GPS devices useless.
Vanderbilt goes further though, arguing that “traffic patterns are rooted in local customs resisting one-size-fits-all solutions”. Not a particularly great argument in my opinion given that historic traffic data is specific in that the data is usually compiled by actual drivers in a given locality. Then again, this is what I’ve taken from another reader’s point of view; I’ve yet to get my hands on the book.
In any case, this book looks pretty cool and if anyone else picks it up or as already read it send me a line via the comments. I’d love to hear your thoughts and theories.
Noticed too that Amazon has Traffic for only $16 and change with free shipping, quite a bit less than the $25 bricks-and-mortar store price.
