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Traffic is a living laboratory of human interaction, a place thriving with subtle displays of implied power, Tom Vanderbilt writes in his book Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us).

"When a light turns green at an intersection, for example, and the car ahead of another driver has not moved, there is some chance that a horn will be sounded. But when that horn will be sounded, for how long and how many times it will be sounded, who will be sounding the horn, and who the horn will be sounded at are not entirely random variables.

"These honks follow observed patterns that may or may not fit your pre-existing notions. Drivers in convertibles with their tops down, less cloaked in anonymity, were less likely to honk than other drivers. For a similar reason, drivers in New York City, surrounded by millions of strangers, are likely to honk more, and sooner, than a driver in a small town in Idaho, where a car that has not moved might not be a random nuisance but the stalled vehicle of a friend."

So, are you a honker, or the driver who most inspires one? What does that say about you? Or, do you circle the parking lot to find the best space, or take the first one that comes up? What, if anything, does that mean?

Mr. Vanderbilt has done exhaustive research with driving experts and traffic official and presents a book that gets to the bottom of driving and behaviour.

We're pleased Mr. Vanderbilt is online now for a live discussion about driving. Send in your questions now and join us then to read his answers, which will be posted below.

Editor's Note: globeandmail.com editors will read and allow or reject each question/comment. Comments/questions may be edited for length or clarity. HTML is not allowed. We will not publish questions/comments that include personal attacks on participants in these discussions, that make false or unsubstantiated allegations, that purport to quote people or reports where the purported quote or fact cannot be easily verified, or questions/comments that include vulgar language or libellous statements. Preference will be given to readers who submit questions/comments using their full name and home town, rather than a pseudonym.

Christine Diemert, globeandmail.com: Thanks for joining us today Mr. Vanderbilt. I'm fascinated by cars and drivers and the whole world around traffic, but I found some of your book a bit depressing because of what it says about the way we live. In particular, the section about women and congestion told me things about our lives I guess I wish would be different.

If I understand it correctly, even though more women are driving because more women have jobs outside the home, they are also spending increasing time in their cars doing the household chores, shuttling family members here and there in what you call "serve-passenger" trips. Yet things have not changed similarly for men over the past decades.

Did you find that surprising? Were there other things you learned you did find surprising?

Tom Vanderbilt: Hi Christine, Good to be with you. I was actually sort of surprised by that, and it's one of the ways that studying traffic as a larger system can reveal all these little hidden social truths that you might not be otherwise aware of — traffic is more than just cars moving around, it's behaviour. It's rather like learning the extent to which much traffic on urban streets is simply looking for parking. It's almost as if the more you look into traffic, the more it has to say.

Josiah Smith from Japan: What do you suppose is the cause of the extreme hostility drivers have for cyclists? In Edmonton, I've seen people scream out their car windows at cyclists hugging the curb; I've seen people try to run cyclists off the road. A bit psychotic if you ask me...

Tom Vanderbilt: Josiah... it's a good question, and it's actually an old question. When the bike was introduced to New York City in the late 19th century, it caused a huge controversy... carriage drivers hated it on the street (it spooked horses, they said), pedestrians hated it on the sidewalk. There's almost something elemental to people in different modes contesting for space... But there's many issues here, really, ranging from people's poor knowledge of the actual traffic laws, negative stereotypes about the types of people cyclists are, etc.

But car drivers should be happy about the site of a cyclist, after all it means one fewer car on the road, that much less traffic...

Tom G from Canada: I was just talking with a friend about anonymity and driving behaviour the other day. I speculated that if each and every car had the driver's name clearly displayed on their car, there would be a lot less road rage and bad driving habits on display. Yes, privacy is an issue, but if you drive in public, why do you deserve that much privacy?

Tom Vanderbilt: I agree completely. Because the car is a private environment, we act like we're no longer in public space. But the roads are public, and protecting privacy should only be done when it betters the social good. Given the crashes and injuries caused by people who drive unsafely, this protection of privacy is clearly not helping.

The system you suggest has actually been argued by Lior Strahilivetz at the University of Chicago.. he argues for an eBay style system of feedback, in which drivers could give negative feedback about other drivers... too many complaints, and you might see your insurance rates go up. Unlike in other spheres of life (work, etc.), there's no way for our reputation to suffer in traffic... we can act like sociopaths and nobody knows it...

James S. from Mississauga: Interesting article and subject matter. I have long had a theory that the way people drive is an indicator of the kind of person they are. I too have connected the anonymity to this theory. (Similar effect on the internet). A simple illustration is the person who is pushy and a taker reveals themselves quite readily on the road where they jump in front of another car, don't signal, don't offer a thank wave etc. In a personal or social setting this same person is far more careful about appearing civil. On this same theme, I feel that driver's etiquette has declined so drastically that it is a symptom of less gentle society. Does the research indicate this is the case?

Tom Vanderbilt: James... It's a good point, and there's an truth in what you say... research from England has shown, for example, that people with criminal convictions off the road will have a higher number of on-road convictions than other drivers. So it quite clearly correlates that a person with less regard for the law will act lawlessly on the road — which is so often why the 'routine traffic stop' is not so routine!

On the other hand, I know some rather reserved people (like me) who may definitely act a bit differently behind the wheel at times, against their better judgment.

Measuring something like etiquette is very difficult, but one thing that has measurably increased, if you believe psychologist's survey, is narcissism.. every year more people say, when queried, things like 'the world would be a better place if i ruled it," etc. It's not a leap to think that that narcissism has flourished in the car, which is after the ultimate sort of "Myspace..." The work of the social scientist Robert Putnam on the decline of community offers some interesting insights here as well...

Northern Dancer from Outside of Toronto: My greatest fear is those small black cars that dart across multiple lanes of traffic, especially when I am making lane changes. Should I stay afraid or join them and become equally reckless?

Tom Vanderbilt: Well, I suppose statistically you've less chance of being hit by a small black car than you have of being in a crash by acting like that black car (unless the road is filled with nothing but those small black cars!)

Terry Maurice from Guelph: I have been driving for many years and find that the quality of driving has deteriorated greatly over this time. There is far more disregard of the 'rules of the road' and outright discourteousness on the part of some drivers for other drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. I often see cars running red lights, not coming to a full stop at stop streets or when turning right on red lights. Often pedestrians attempting to cross at stoplights are ignored by some drivers as they make their right turns. These in-town driving behaviours along with the excessive speed on the highways, crossing lanes without signalling and a general disregard for the safety of other drivers seems, to me, to be on the increase. Perhaps, I am just getting older and crotchety but I would appreciate your thoughts on my observations?

Tom Vanderbilt: Hi Terry... I do share your suspicions, though it's tough to put actual numbers on this... after all, in the US in the 1950s, we were losing more than 50,000 a people a year on the roads.. when now, with many more drivers driving more miles, we're at 43,000 fatalities. This may be all down to safer cars, of course, and in some cases we are seeing incidences of increased "non-compliance" at things like red lights, which is why communities are having to turn to red light cameras (not simply to raise funds). Engineers are also having to make the "clearance phase" longer in some places, to make sure everyone can get out of the intersection in time because so many have tried to go through the yellow, the red, etc. And signalling has become almost obsolete, like men wearing fedoras at baseball games.