CONTACTTRAFFICABOUT TOM VANDERBILTOTHER WRITING CONTACT ABOUT THE BOOK

Archive for October 15th, 2008

Markets in Everything (the Traffic Edition)

From the Chicago Tribune:

“In markets selling fake seat belts in neighboring Rawalpindi, stores have sold out. These belts are threadbare, and their buckling mechanisms do not appear to be strong enough to withstand a stomach after a heavy meal, let alone a 5-m.p.h. car crash.

“These belts aren’t really made for cars,” acknowledged entrepreneur Waqas Ali, 23, who sells fake seat belts and other car parts. “They’re of no use. We just put them in because of the police.”

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Posted on Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 at 9:20 am by: Tom Vanderbilt
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Black Boxes

Here’s a pretty compelling argument for black box recorders and the like.

Like Jorg Haider, the driver here seems to have had a few. The black box “allegedly showed Butres was travelling at 113mph, with the throttle 70 per cent open, despite bad weather that had left the road covered in puddles.”

The driver is denying it; absent the technology, it might be harder to make the prosecution’s case (even with witnesses).

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Posted on Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 at 9:16 am by: Tom Vanderbilt
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Traffic Tom Vanderbilt

How We Drive is the companion blog to Tom Vanderbilt’s New York Times bestselling book, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), published by Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S. and Canada, Penguin in the U.K, and in languages other than English by a number of other fine publishers worldwide.

Please send tips, news, research papers, links, photos (bad road signs, outrageous bumper stickers, spectacularly awful acts of driving or parking or anything traffic-related), or ideas for my Slate.com Transport column to me at: info@howwedrive.com.

For publicity inquiries, please contact Kate Runde at Vintage: krunde@randomhouse.com.

For editorial inquiries, please contact Zoe Pagnamenta at The Zoe Pagnamenta Agency: zoe@zpagency.com.

For speaking engagement inquiries, please contact
Jenna Meulemans at the Knopf Speaker Bureau.

Order Traffic from:

Amazon | B&N | Borders
Random House | Powell’s

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U.S. Paperback UK Paperback
Traffic UK
Drive-on-the-left types can order the book from Amazon.co.uk.

For UK publicity enquiries please contact Rosie Glaisher at Penguin.

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