Vanderbilt's book on Traffic is great fun but misses the most important point of our automotive lives.

That's 13,500 people killed every year by drunk drivers. More than 35 people every day.

These drivers are under the influence over and over and over.

But there's a very clever, easy technological fix that could help enormously.

It is called an ignition interlock and it is a breathilizer-gadget that prevents the car from moving if the driver is drunk. (It has plenty of checks to stop any getting drunk an hour into your trip, having your kid breath into the gadget, etc.)

California failed to enact a law this year that would have required a convicted DUI driver to use this gadget for a mere 5 months.

This ignition interlock technology needs to be in cars.

I look forward to when you're doing the speed limit on a busy highway and get pulled over 'cause you're not "keeping up with the flow of traffic". Of course if you do keep up you'll be speeding and then you'll still be breaking the law. For shame! Better just stay home.

Yes, yes, yes, I have. And it is frustrating. But not signaling makes you part of the damn problem. I don't start braking the law AND more importantly endangering everyone on the road just because sometimes people try to cut me out. That is selfish and immature. And guess what, even in NYC, it doesn't happen every time. Some people are impressed enough that you are bothering to signal that they will give you space, especially if you are a considerate driver and not trying to gun ahead in the wrong lane and cut in at the last minute. But I guess you're just permanently acclimatized to driving like a prick.

This is also different than going a bit above the limit when that is the prevailing speed of traffic. It is never safer to make sudden, unsignaled maneuvers. "Nobody's perfect" is not an excuse.

Since many DUI are repeat offenders, often continuing to drive without licenses, I say we should let them keep their licenses and instead take away their car.

Even if it's not their own car.

If some idiot (parent/friend) let the drunk drive their car, they lose it. The only exception would be if the drunk was driving a stolen car, of course.

The police dept can sell the cars and keep the money.

Cars cost major $$. People care a great deal about their cars--it might actually be a deterrent. And no one will lend the DUI their car again. Even a drunk would think twice and take a taxi faced with losing their favorite truck.

TAKE A LOOK AT PLACES LIKE BUMM FUCK KENTUCKY !.....YEP ITS THE SAME CALCUTTA MASS OF HUMANITY TRYIN TO OUT MANUVER ONE ANOTHER ON THAT WORLD WAR TWO LANE ROAD !........ALL THE GOOFY FUCKERS IN THEIR PIMPED OUT HUMMERS DRIVIN LIKE THE JETSONS

ON FLINTSTONES ROADS !...........YEP HERE IN BUSH CRACKER COUNTRY ITS A FORD EXCURSION AMERICA WITH A MODEL T DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION !.................I WISH I COULD AFFORD MY

OWN BILLBOARD{S}...SMALL REPUBLICAN GOVERMENT + SMALL TAXES =

SMALL PIECE OF SHIT ROADS !..........YOU DO THE MATH ! ?

A reporter once did a story in our local paper about how he experimentally drove the speed limit all day around the city, being very conscientious about signaling, changing lanes, stop signs and other traffic habits. He got flipped off, honked at, tailgated, passed by weavers, dogged, cursed and otherwise abused all day as he made his way around safely and legally.

I saw a driver the other day who had written across the back window of his old Honda Civic 'Sorry. Driving the speed limit to save gas.' Why did the guy driving the legal limit and saving gas in a thrift vehicle feel like he was the one who had to apologize?!

@Redpen: "Driving to the end of the merge lane and moving over because the road forces you" is not necessarily a brilliant idea on a congested highway. If you drag-race down to the end and there's no space to move into because everyone is being a prick like Lynx and won't give you space to merge into, then you've got nowhere to go and will end up in a high-speed wreck. Otherwise you'll end up slamming on the brakes at a complete halt at the end of the merge lane, unable to get up to highway speed and backing up traffic. Best to merge in as soon as it is safe when there's congestion.

@Lynx again, you are pulling that out of your ass. Cops do not cite people for driving at the speed limit. They may pull people over for going way under it, (especially suspected DUIs) or driving under the speed limit in the left lane.

I would disagree with Berger’s pooh-poohing of the effects of urban sprawl on worsening traffic problems. It’s been well-studied, documented and written about in the popular press too. I don’t think that it’s an either/or issue, but rather that they complement and amplify each other’s effects on traffic.

However, I can certainly relate to how drivers can’t “see” things they don’t expect. I take mass transit every day to work. I must walk about 3 blocks along a major thoroughfare and cross two corners of a wide, busy intersection in order to get to my bus stop in the morning. Careless moms in minivans and thick-necked guys in work trucks and tattooed guys smoking cigarettes in sport cars and businessmen in fancy Lexuses are constantly ignoring me or looking the other direction when I have the “walk” signals, not even bothering to check if anyone is in the intersection before making a right turn before whipping around the corner or looking for oncoming traffic in the other direction and hitting the gas before looking.

They may not notice me beforehand, but they sure do after they cut me off with inches to spare or put me in some such danger, because usually I am swearing loudly and utilizing various obscene gestures to get their attention and glare at them in the eye. Idiots.

Or what about how there is zero consideration of when it comes to maintenance or design? In some areas of my neighborhood in Denver, particularly the wealthy ones, there are hardly any sidewalks. Even if there are, they are never plowed when it snows, but rather accept the snow, slush and runoff from the streets and parking lots. This then freezes solid overnight into concrete-like ice mountains that can be four or five feet high, completely blocking the sidewalk. These force pedestrians to risk life and limb by walking into traffic in the street in order to make their way, or possibly taking painful tumble when trying to climb over them. I am relatively young and able bodied and this is often difficult for ME. I’ve seen elderly and handicapped people have a much harder and more dangerous time than myself. Meanwhile, the streets are usually dry and ice free.

I think the idea that Vanderbilt describes, that traffic engineering has traditionally failed to take into account the limitations and nature of human beings is a valid one and needs to be discussed and considered much more than it is. The dominant paradigm of developing urban spaces exclusively for cars and not for human beings has got to change.