Bill Keefe's Reviews > Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do and What It Says About Us

Confession: I couldn't take more than three chapters.

Tom Vanderbilt should sue his editor. Mr. Vanderbilt obviously has voluminous knowledge on this subject but this is an endless ramble of facts, studies, insights and observations that not once; really, not one single time; is boiled up to a conclusion, an important trend or even a clear summary.

Believe me; I was eager to read this book. I drive ALL THE TIME and am very interested in why and how we perceive things on the road and what motivates me to make the good - and often the extremely embarrassing - judgments I make. But this was a ramble, a directionless stroll through everything there is to know which, unfortunately, leads the reader nowhere.

For a comparison, take a reading of "The Flamingo's Smile," by Stephen Jay Gould, where you wade through very detailed scientific explanations and descriptions of biological phenomena. This stuff inundated me with details on subjects about which I knew very few generalities. But, it was great reading (and great writing). All along the way, Professor Gould tells you why what you are reading is important and how it all ties together at a higher level.

No, not everyone is a writer of the caliber of Mr. Gould but Mr. Vanderbilt doesn't even come close - and doesn't seem to try. He just goes on and on, slipping from one potentially interesting topic to another, from one isolated study to another.

I couldn't take it. I got off the first exit and headed to a more rewarding reading experience.