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?
Related Articles
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?
