I work as a public safety dispatcher in a region of the country often cited in this book and so reading it was a singular experience. I expected to be a choir member being preached to - in my workplace the worst insult one co-worker can throw at another is to call her a “motorist” - and this expectation was met, but only sort of.

I really kind of want everyone who drives to read this book just to remind him of how limited our understanding of what’s going on around us from minute to minute is in general, as well as when driving a car. We have blind spots both objectively in terms of visual obstructions and the built-in limitations of these wet gooey cameras we call our eyes AND in terms of how we perceive ourselves, as “above average drivers” and “not as drunk as that guy down the bar” and “duty-bound to report that truck driver who flipped us off when we cut in front of him on an icy two-lane”...

But lest I rant, lest I rant… this is a fine and entertaining read even for a professional traffic crank like me. Vanderbilt does a great job of conveying his counter-intuitive surprises, that roundabouts are safer than grid-based intersections, that it really is better to “steer with the pedals” when you’re in a skid, that bicycle riders really aren’t safer using the sidewalk instead of the street. I’m guilty of that last one, just last night. Oops!

We’re hearing a lot about moral hazards lately in terms of loans and finance. But there are worse ones out there, like the illusion of safety in a car: safety technology, safer cars, airbags, traffic lights, all subtly seem to urge us to take MORE risks.

Arm yourselves against all that and read this book!!!!!