TRAFFIC

Traffic speaks volumes: it brings people together from every walk of life and, in this hugely enjoyable, curiosity-filled book, Tom Vanderbilt explains why traffic problems are really people problems. Traffic shows that how we behave walking the streets, on our bikes and in our cars is actually an astonishing cultural indicator and a living, constantly surprising model of what physicists call ''emergent collective behaviour'' - as we all choose to do things that just don''t seem to make rational sense.