Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do - Tom Vanderbilt

• Drivers with the top down honk less - p25
• While in thick traffic, drivers spend more time being passed then passing (accordian effect in each lane means you pass a bunch of cars quickly, get passed more slowly); adding to this the fact that we look forward more than back (6% of time spent looking in rear view mirrors), and illusion that other lanes are going faster is accentuated.  - p43
• 85% of people killed in work zones are drivers or passengers, not workers - p45
• 15 subjects in Cal State study with no tickets in previous year recieved 33 citations in 2 weeks after putting Black Panther bumber stickers on their cars - p25
• .5 mile = as far as most people will walk for things like groceries - p138
• Adjusted for inflation, gas taxes bring in less revenues than they did in the 1960s (2008) - p162
• 50% of auto accidents are at intersections - p178
• Roundabouts - 40% fewer crashes, 76% fewer injuries, 90% fewer fatalities than stop signs - p179
• Majority of fatalities are single vehicle, run off road - p185
• Most accidents occur on dry and clear roads, on sunny days, and to sober drivers - p185
• People do not slow down for "Children at Play" signs - p186
• Signs often make roads more dangerous, as often do lights, railings, and wider lanes - p186-207
• More people killed legally crossing the road than jaywalking - p197
• Drivers give bikers more space when there is no bike lane - p199
• Cyclists are more safe riding on the street than on the sidewalk - p268
• Old trees make roads more safe - p209-210
• Striking pedestrians at 36-45 mph is twice as likely to kill them as at 31-35 mph, and 4x as 26-30 - p206
• People in cars going 50mph are 15x more likey to die than at 25mph - p252
• Legally drunk = 13x more likely to be in a fatal crash, drinking with legal limits = 7x - p251
• Drivers with BAC .01-.04 had **fewer** crashes than drivers at .00
• People reporting drinking w/greater frequency are safer drivers than non-drinkers (probably due to corellated age groups) - p254
• Females are in more accidents, but males are in more fatal accidents (males 1.3/100mm, females .73/100mm) - p255
• Only 5% of crashed involve two vehicles moving in the same direction - p253
• 30 seconds - Tipping point for jaywalking and accepting smaller gaps to turn against traffic - p225
• Motorcycles 22x more like to result in death than car
• People with personality disorder are 10x more likely to get in a serious crash - p261
• There are fewer accidents when drivers have a passenger, except in the case of teenagers - p256
• Death rate on rural, non-interstate roads = 2.5x all other roads - p257
• Half of all traffic fatalities happen while vehicles are traveling 35mph or less (obvious if half fatalities happen at intersections?) - p274
• Race car drivers get the same number of tickets as average drivers, but have more crashes (driving skills are minor if any help in avoiding crashes -- it's being alert, following the rules, and staying awake that matter most) - p281
• Doctors second only to students in crash risk; firefighters, pilots among most safe - p258
• Traffic fatality rate is correlated to GDP, but even stronger correlation to govt. corruption ("Transparency International" for corruption rankings) - p237
• 1.3 fatalities per 100 million miles driven - p249
• 1/100 - Chances that average drive (15,500 miles/year) will die in 30 years of driving - p249
• More people killed between 12am and 3am Saturday and Sunday than all the rest of the week - p250
• 3 seconds - In 80% of crashes and 65% near crashes, driver was not paying attention to traffice for 3+ seconds before event (trouble starts at 2 seconds)
• Slow drivers more likely than fast drivers to be in an accident = dubious finding - p252
• More people drive in pickups per 100mm than any other kind of vehicle (could be more a factor of drivers than vehicles, e.g. men) - p258
• Anti-lock brakes have zero effect on reducing crashes (never explained) - p263
• The same rate of decline in accident rates happened after the introduction of seat belts than before - p266
• In snowstorms there are more collisions, but less fatalities on roads - p267
• SUVs are no safer than medium-sized cars and less save than minivans - p270
• Globally more people die from suicide than war plus murders together - p270
• New cars crash more often than old - p270
• Terrorism deaths since 1960 =~ deaths from being struck by lightning - p271
• The majority of Americans agreed it was okay to curb civil liberties to fight terrorism, but will not make the changes to traffic laws that would save many more lives (lower speed limits, more red light cameras, stiffer BAC restrictions) - p271
• Est. 10,000 lives could have been saved if U.S. installed speed cameras as UK did in the 90s. - p271
• People are more likely to give to a charity with ads that show one suffering child -- even more than ads that show just two suffering children - p272
• Stroup Effect - Taking longer to name the color of words when the words spell out the names of different colors (e.g. it takes longer to say "red" when what is written in red is the word "yellow") - p84-5
• People instructed to look for blue arrows will see a blue motorcycle faster than a yellow one (and vice versa) - p85
• SUVs consume 20% more lost time on highways (because they are longer and do not accelerate as quickly) - p125
• Throughout history, even before the car, people have attempted to keep their commute to about 1 hour - p131-135
• "A driver in Maine will brake faster for a moose than for a penguin."  (We recognize things we expect more quickly) - p183
• "Thus a samauri in Japan, who kept his scabbard on his left side and would draw with his right arm, wanted to be on the left as he passed potential enemies on the road.  So Japan today drives on the left.  In England, horse-drawn carriages were generally piloted by drivers mounted in the seat.  The mostly right-handed drivers would "naturally" sit to the right, holding the reins in the left hand and the whip in the right.  The driver could better judge oncoming traffic by traveling on the left, so England drives on the left.  But in many other countries, including the United States, a driver often walked along the left side of his horse team or rode the left horse  in a team (the left-rear horse if there were more than two), so that he could use his right arm for better control.  This meant it was better to stay to the right, so he could judge oncoming traffic and talk to other drivers.  The result is that many countries today drive on the right." - p223