Traffic

I read a great book several years ago called - Traffic - Why We Drive the Way We Do. It was a fun read. It was just a bunch of stuff they know from researching traffic. And they know a lot, because it is  like 300 pages. I underline stuff I like, so I went through and I'll share the highlights with you.

• In a year, the average American spends 38 hours stuck in traffic.
• Most drivers use what is called the Fundamental Attribution Error. Which is - We ascribe the actions of others to who they are. However, we attribute our actions to what we were forced to do in a given situation.
• When angry, we are more likely to honk at people that are in older beat up cars than nice cars.
• In traffic, and other situations, people overestimate the amount of time the spend waiting. It is why Disneyworld pads its announced wait time for rides.
• Chronic lane changers (hate them) on average gain only about 4 minutes in an 80 minute drive.
• Drivers practice Loss Aversion. That is the idea that people register losses more powerfully than wins - e.g. The bad emotion of getting stopped at a red light is greater than the enjoyment of making it through a green light. (Loss aversion seems especially true in sports.)
• In worker zones, the greatest danger is to the drivers. In work zones 85% of those killed are drivers or passengers.
• The main type of accident in those work zones are rear end collisions.
• A poll of drivers showed the single greatest driving stress is merging difficulties.
• In many studies, drivers rank themselves as better than the average driver. They have a name for that - The Optimistic Bias. On a related note, the most active stock market traders, tend to make the least amount of money.

How are we doing? This needs to be at least a two session blog. I've got a lot more from the book. In the meantime, go out and practice your driving.