Boxes Quote by Tom Vanderbilt

“Many traffic signs have become like placebos, giving false comfort to the afflicted, or simple boilerplate to ward off lawsuits, the roadway version of the Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts box that says, “Warning: Pastry Filling May Be Hot When Heated.”

Tom Vanderbilt

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 4.0 out of 5 (4 ratings)

Boxes Comfort Filling Giving Hot May Pastries Placebo Pops Simple Traffic Warning

More by Tom Vanderbilt

“The pursuit of a kind of absolute safety, above all other considerations of what makes places good environments, has not only made those streets…

Tom Vanderbilt

Image

Human attention, in the best of circumstances, is a fluid but fragile entity. Beyond a certain threshold, the more that is asked of it,…

Tom Vanderbilt

Image

“This is the reason the whole ‘keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel, use the hands-free handset’ idea is a…

Tom Vanderbilt

Image

The way humans hunt for parking and the way animals hunt for food are not as different as you might think.

Tom Vanderbilt

Image

“This raises the interesting, if seemingly outlandish, question of why car drivers, virtually alone among users of wheeled transport, do not wear helmets. Yes, cars do provide a nice metal cocoon with inflatable cushions. But in Australia, for example, head injuries among car occupants, according to research by the Federal Office of Road Safety, make up half the country’s traffic-injury…

Tom Vanderbilt

“'Can you imagine, 30 years ago, saying nobody will make coffee at home?' Nancy McGuckin, a travel researcher in Washington, D.C.”

Tom Vanderbilt

Image

Men may or may not be better drivers than women, but they seem to die more often trying to prove that they are.

Tom Vanderbilt

Image

“There is a simple mantra you can carry about you in traffic: When a situation feels dangerous to you, it's probably more safe than…

Tom Vanderbilt

Image

As Harvard University psychologist Daniel Gilbert argues, 'You can't adapt to commuting, because it's entirely unpredictable. Driving in traffic is a different kind of…

Tom Vanderbilt

Image

“It's probably no accident that whenever one hears of a smart technology, it refers to something that has been taken out of human control.”

Tom Vanderbilt

Image

The road, more than simply a system of regulations and designs, is a place where many millions of us, with only loose parameters for…

Tom Vanderbilt

Image

Whether advanced driver training helps drivers in the long term is one of those controversial and unresolved mysteries of the road, but my eye-opening…

Tom Vanderbilt

Image

Explore all 15 Tom Vanderbilt quotes

More Boxes quotes

The best way to marginalize the Muslim Brotherhood [in Egypt] is in the ballot box, not through arrests and killing people.

Kelly Ayotte

Image

When I step into the batters box. The fans, the noise, the cheers, they all disappear. For that moment, the world is just a…

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Image

I separated the joints, the arm joints, the leg joints, and had to do two boilings. I think I used four boxes of Soilex for each one, put in the upper portion of the body and boiled that for about two hours and then the lower portion for another two hours. The Soilex removes all the flesh, turns it into…

Jeffrey Dahmer

In a library we are surrounded by many hundreds of dear friends, but they are imprisoned by an enchanter in these paper and leathern…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

He decided then that he would love her forever no matter what came to pass. It was not so much a matter of deciding as accepting the inevitability of it. It made him feel better, though he felt perturbed, too, worried that this kiss was wrong. But from his point of view, at fourteen years old, their love was entirely…

David Guterson

I think if you keep the box closed long enough you do kill the cat, actually.

John Green

Image

I have nothing but praise for the boy. He is easily the best player in the world. His contribution as a goal threat is…

Alex Ferguson

Image

The recurrent laryngeal nerve - which runs from the head to the voice box - goes all the way down into the chest, loops around a major artery, then goes all the way back up again. It goes right past the larynx on the way down. All a decent designer would have to do is loop it off at that…

Richard Dawkins

The library is the biggest cracker box factory in the world. The more you eat, the more you want.

Ray Bradbury

Image

3 people get stranded on a remote Island A Banker, a Daily Mail reader & an Asylum seeker All they have to eat is a box of 10 Mars bars The Banker says "Because of my expertise in asset management, I''ll look after our resources" The other 2 agree So the Banker opens the box, gobbles down 9 of the…

Christopher Brookmyre

Unpleasant questions are being raised about Mother's Day. Is this day necessary? . . . Isn't it bad public policy? . . . No politician with half his senses, which a majority of politicians have, is likely to vote for its abolition, however. As a class, mothers are tender and loving, but as a voting bloc they would not hesitate…

Russell Baker