CONTACTTRAFFICABOUT TOM VANDERBILTOTHER WRITING CONTACT ABOUT THE BOOK

Archive for April 19th, 2009

Unintentional Traffic Calming

From the BBC: “An Essex parish council wants potholes to be left unfilled for longer to act as a “natural traffic calming” measure.”

This doesn’t shock me, as this is actually the natural state of affairs, through benign neglect or otherwise, in New York City — take Chambers Street, for example, a buckling roller-coaster of a ride in lower Manhattan. I’m of two minds about it, as, first, they are annoying; but second, I do notice the slowing effect (also from those big metal plates the utility companies throw on the street), which is useful in pedestrian heavy areas (i.e., most of the city). And I myself know the potholes and know when to slow down, and have thus never damaged my vehicle. How many insurance claims are filed against the city? How many are successful? What’s the burden of proof? Is the time and money that goes into filling them the best use of social resources (particularly when drivers are undercharged for the road-wearing driving they do)?

(Horn honk to Christian)

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Posted on Sunday, April 19th, 2009 at 1:15 pm 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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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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