Review 508: Traffic

Traffic by Paul Josephson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book in the Object Lessons series took on a serious tone to the subject. The book is of a small size and usually these series books are usually quickly read books.

In looking at traffic, the focus was on safety and traffic calming measure, specifically with the speed bump. It has many different names, one of my favorites is in Russian it is referred to a the sleeping policeman. These roadway bumps can take on several different forms, but they are there in order to calm traffic and speeds. With slower speeds pedestrians and bicyclists can share safer roads. One of the best things about speed bumps are they are very low cost and easy to add to the roadway.

Other safety features in the automobile was discussed, such as seatbelts, interior design changes and airbags, all to make the car safer in the event of an accident. The book did have a leaning towards looking at the regulations of the United States, but other countries were often mentioned. There was a chapter on Brazil and longish one on Russia. The county with the strictish measures of safety does have the lowest number of fatalities per 100,000 persons, this is the Netherlands at 3.9, worldwide the average is 18.

Overall the book does come together as a cohesive unit, but many of the chapters felt like individual essays, somewhat disjointed from one to another. The speed bump was the one consistency throughout.