Traffic Woes

Tom Vanderbilt, why have you forsaken us?

The author of the recently published Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (And What It Says About Us) is on the west coast at this very minute doing "lots of media" and guest-blogging for Powell's Books.

But NOT appearing in San Francisco.

As far as we know.

What, traffic not bad enough on Market St.?

880 moving too smoothly for you?

Guest-blogging for Modern Times not good enough for you? You have to go to Portland to talk about traffic?

I guess we'll have to make do with listening again to your appearance on Fresh Air and reading your blogs at Powell's and at www.howwedrive.com.

Our favorite Tom Vanderbilt blog moment: where you honor The Physics of Traffic, by Boris Kerner, with this unequivocal recommendation: "If you're going to buy only one physics of traffic book this year, this would be the one."

Our favorite Fresh Air moment: where that lady asks you about bicycle traffic in the Netherlands, and you reply: "It's a really interesting question, and it gets so complicated I really should write a bicycle sequel."

Shivers. No, really: shivers.

After the jump: Bay Area traffic isn't really that bad.