Why do some people become demons when they get behind a wheel? Why does the other lane always move faster? Why do New Yorkers jaywalk (and nobody does in Cophenhagen)? And why should you never drive with any beer-drinking, divorced doctors named Fred? Driving is about far more than getting from A to B. As Tom Vanderbilt's brilliant, curiosity-filled book shows, it's actually the key to deciphering human nature and ...well, pretty much everything. From the etiquette of horn-honking to bumper stickers you should avoid, from gridlock in ancient Rome to why getting rid of road signs actually reduces accidents, "Traffic" will change the way you see yourself, and other people (and not just through your windscreen).

Prologue

Why I Became a Late Merger (and Why You Should Too)

Chapter One Why Does the Other Lane Always Seem Faster?How Traffic Messes with Our Heads

Shut Up, I Can't Hear You: Anonymity, Aggression, and the Problems of Communicating While Driving

Are You Lookin' at Me? Eye Contact, Stereotypes,and Social Interaction on the Road

Waiting in Line, Waiting in Traffic:Why the Other Lane Always Moves Faster

Postscript: And Now, the Secrets of Late Merging Revealed

Chapter Two Why You're Not as Good a Driver as You Think You Are

If Driving Is So Easy, Why Is It So Hard for a Robot? What Teaching Machines to Drive Teaches Us About Driving

How's My Driving? How the Hell Should I Know?

Why Lack of Feedback Fails Us on the Road

Chapter Three How Our Eyes and Minds Betray Us on the Road

Keep Your Mind on the Road:Why It's So Hard to Pay Attention in Traffic

Objects in Traffic Are More Complicated Than They Appear:How Our Driving Eyes Deceive Us

Chapter Four Why Ants Don't Get into Traffic Jams (and Humans Do):On Cooperation as a Cure for Congestion

Meet the World's Best Commuter:What We Can Learn from Ants, Locusts, and Crickets

Playing God in Los Angeles

When Slower Is Faster, or How the Few Defeat the Many:Traffic Flow and Human Nature 119

Chapter Five Why Women Cause More Congestion Than Men(and Other Secrets of Traffic)

Who Are All These People?

The Psychology of Commuting

The Parking Problem: Why We Are Inefficient Parkers and How This Causes Congestion

Chapter Six Why More Roads Lead to More Traffic(and What to Do About It)

The Selfish Commuter

A Few Mickey Mouse Solutions to the Traffic Problem

Chapter Seven When Dangerous Roads Are Safer

The Highway Conundrum:How Drivers Adapt to the Road They See

The Trouble with Traffic Signs--and How Getting Rid ofThem Can Make Things Better for Everyone

Forgiving Roads or Permissive Roads?The Fatal Flaws of Traffic Engineering

Chapter Eight How Traffic Explains the World:On Driving with a Local Accent

"Good Brakes, Good Horn, Good Luck": Plunging into the Maelstrom of Delhi Traffic

Why New Yorkers Jaywalk (and Why They Don't in Copenhagen): Traffic as Culture

Danger: Corruption Ahead--the Secret Indicator of Crazy Traffic

Chapter Nine Why You Shouldn't Drive with a Beer-Drinking Divorced Doctor Named Fred on Super Bowl Sunday in a Pickup Truck in Rural Montana: What's Risky on the Road and Why

Semiconscious Fear:How We Misunderstand the Risks of the Road

Should I Stay or Should I Go?Why Risk on the Road Is So Complicated

The Risks of Safety

Epilogue: Driving Lessons

Acknowledgments

Notes

Index