streets-and-blocks

Highly Local Habits of Drivers

Abigail Tucker looks at Tom Vanderbilt’s new book Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) in the Smithsonian Magazine. If driving habits are as localized as he says, I wonder what sets Torontonian drivers apart from the rest of the country?

Traffic itself, Vanderbilt points out, is a language of its own—a set of rules that unites a culture while allowing for individual flair. American drivers tend to stand up for their rights: when tailgated, we may well passive-aggressively brake instead of abandoning the left lane to speeding scofflaws. But “in some ways it’s hard to talk about the American driver,” Vanderbilt told me. “The culture shifts with the state, the population shifts, the laws shift. ” Drivers die in Montana in disproportionately high numbers, in large part because of the state’s rural roads, elevated drinking-and-driving rates and formidable speed limits. (The single deadliest road, on the other hand, is Florida’s U.S. 19.) Driving differences also span continents. Parts of northern Europe have an almost prim driving style, while in some Asian cities, it’s trial by fire, or at least, exhaust fumes. A Shanghai intersection that looks as pretty as a kaleidoscope pattern from a 13th floor hotel room proves to be, upon closer inspection, a fearful crush of cars, mopeds and pedestrians. In Delhi, India, Vanderbilt is warned that his “reflexes” are not up to local driving; indeed, posted signs say “Obey Traffic Rules, Avoid Blood Pool” and “Don’t Dream, Otherwise You’ll Scream.”