Based on exhaustive research and interviews with driving experts and traffic officials around the globe, Traffic gets under the hood of the everyday activity of driving to uncover the surprisingly complex web of physical, psychological, and technical factors that explain how traffic works, why we drive the way we do, and what our driving says about us. Vanderbilt examines the perceptual limits and cognitive underpinnings that make us worse drivers...

Mr. Watson's usual Saturday drive in his Cadillac with his favorite pig, Mercy, turns into an adventure when an unexpected passenger shows up in the back seat and Mercy finds herself behind the wheel.

"Marco is riding in the backseat of a car driven by his parents. Being bored, he puts his hand out the window and fantasizes about flying. As he does so, his fantasy takes him on a wild ride up in the sky"--

When Tony turns twelve and moves up to the next class of kart racing, he worries that he will never be able to compete against the older boys who have more experience.

Follows a young girl's imaginary journey as she zooms in a race car past fields and forests to faraway lands before returning home to her own safe bed.

"Fannie and Louis both belong to an online support group for trauma survivors. They both also have a strange tendency to lose things. But when they embark on a road trip to finally meet each other, they stat to realize that the things you lose might be things you weren't meant to have at all, and that you never know what you might find if you just take a chance"--

A librarian mother spends a summer with her metalhead teenage son. A depressive young man becomes an apprentice to a legend-in-his-own mind. These people you never think about will make you reexamine yourself.