What do you think?
Rate this book
Traffication: How the Car Killed the Countryside
Traffication develops a bold new idea: that the trillions of miles of driving we do each year are just as destructive to our natural environment as any of the better known threats, such as habitat loss or intensive farming. The problem is not simply one of roadkill; the impacts of roads are far more pervasive, and they impact our wildlife in many subtle and unpredictable ways.
Using the latest research, the book reveals how road traffic shatters essential biological processes, affecting how animals communicate, move around, feed, reproduce and die. Most importantly, it shows that the influence of traffic extends well beyond the verge, and that a busy road can strip the wildlife from our countryside for miles around. In the UK, almost nowhere is exempt from this environmental toll. Yet the final message here is one of hope: by identifying the car as a major cause of the catastrophic loss of wildlife, the solutions to our biodiversity crisis suddenly become much clearer.
The first step to solving any problem is to recognise that it exists in the first place. But with road traffic, we are not even at that crucial initial stage in our recovery. Quite simply, Traffication does for road traffic what Silent Spring did for agrochemicals: awakening us from our collective road-blindness and opening up a whole new chapter in conservation. This urgent book is an essential contribution to the debate on how we restore the health of our countryside – and of our own minds and bodies.
Using the latest research, the book reveals how road traffic shatters essential biological processes, affecting how animals communicate, move around, feed, reproduce and die. Most importantly, it shows that the influence of traffic extends well beyond the verge, and that a busy road can strip the wildlife from our countryside for miles around. In the UK, almost nowhere is exempt from this environmental toll. Yet the final message here is one of hope: by identifying the car as a major cause of the catastrophic loss of wildlife, the solutions to our biodiversity crisis suddenly become much clearer.
The first step to solving any problem is to recognise that it exists in the first place. But with road traffic, we are not even at that crucial initial stage in our recovery. Quite simply, Traffication does for road traffic what Silent Spring did for agrochemicals: awakening us from our collective road-blindness and opening up a whole new chapter in conservation. This urgent book is an essential contribution to the debate on how we restore the health of our countryside – and of our own minds and bodies.
- GenresNonfictionUrbanismUrban
288 pages, Hardcover
Published May 2, 2023
5 people are currently reading
279 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 16, 2023
Absolutely fantastic account of the subject. Donald is passionate, well evidenced and knows how to communicate his points eloquently. The environmental impact of our transport system does hold a special interest to me because of my PhD, but I should think the general educated reader would enjoy this too. The chapters on noise and light pollution and separation of habitats/populations were a fave. Readable and more enjoyable (IE less doom and gloom) than other climate change books.
My only complaint is that Donald remains 'balanced' (at least in the beginning chapters) despite all evidence of the damage of traffication.
Excellent book to purchase for the birders, petrol heads or data geeks in your life
My only complaint is that Donald remains 'balanced' (at least in the beginning chapters) despite all evidence of the damage of traffication.
Excellent book to purchase for the birders, petrol heads or data geeks in your life
July 25, 2023
In 2020 scientists found the answer to a longstanding question – what had been causing the mass deaths of coho salmon, a commercially and culturally important fish, in the sea off Seattle in the Pacific North-West of America? It turned out to be pollution of the seawater by particles containing a chemical toxic to this fish. The particles came from tyre wear on roads.
This is one of many examples contained in ‘Traffication’, a book about how roads and traffic affect the natural world.
This book is a blisteringly good 5-star read.
The author, Paul Donald, a conservation scientist, develops a clear central theme – that traffic is a major threat to animal and plant life – and, after an entertaining start about the heyday of cycling and its displacement by the motor car in the early 20th century, he unleashes the results of a wealth of research from around the world over the past 100 years to build a staggering and troubling picture of the dramatic, often unexpected effects of traffic on our wildlife.
These effects range from obvious scenes of roadkill to the more subtle but equally catastrophic effects of traffic noise, tyre-induced air pollution, high vehicle speeds, and road-dominated landscapes on the health of the whole living world, including humans.
The book provides an even-handed, often surprising, yet passionate account of the many ways in which roads and their vehicles affect life on earth. It manages to be witty and entertaining as well as seriously scientific.
If, like me, you like your science to tell a gripping story but also to be coolly analysed, clearly interpreted and consistently applied, and you want the books you read to be both challenging and informative, then I can recommend ‘Traffication’ very highly indeed.
The text is packed with new ideas and things you probably never knew about cars and roads and wildlife. ‘Traffication’ itself is a new word coined by Donald to provide an umbrella term covering all effects of traffic, good and bad. As he points out, not having a word for something is one big reason it gets ignored by conservationists, politicians and the public alike.
‘Traffication’ is quite a depressing read at times but, unlike many current environmental books, it ends with a chapter of well-argued reasons for optimism if we manage to take a few simple but realistic steps in the right direction. We should all want to do something because the living world of animals and plants is vital to us, and, argues Donald, we can all actually do something in practice because traffic is a part of all our lives. I recommend reading this book as a great way to find out more about the problem and what can be done about it.
This is one of many examples contained in ‘Traffication’, a book about how roads and traffic affect the natural world.
This book is a blisteringly good 5-star read.
The author, Paul Donald, a conservation scientist, develops a clear central theme – that traffic is a major threat to animal and plant life – and, after an entertaining start about the heyday of cycling and its displacement by the motor car in the early 20th century, he unleashes the results of a wealth of research from around the world over the past 100 years to build a staggering and troubling picture of the dramatic, often unexpected effects of traffic on our wildlife.
These effects range from obvious scenes of roadkill to the more subtle but equally catastrophic effects of traffic noise, tyre-induced air pollution, high vehicle speeds, and road-dominated landscapes on the health of the whole living world, including humans.
The book provides an even-handed, often surprising, yet passionate account of the many ways in which roads and their vehicles affect life on earth. It manages to be witty and entertaining as well as seriously scientific.
If, like me, you like your science to tell a gripping story but also to be coolly analysed, clearly interpreted and consistently applied, and you want the books you read to be both challenging and informative, then I can recommend ‘Traffication’ very highly indeed.
The text is packed with new ideas and things you probably never knew about cars and roads and wildlife. ‘Traffication’ itself is a new word coined by Donald to provide an umbrella term covering all effects of traffic, good and bad. As he points out, not having a word for something is one big reason it gets ignored by conservationists, politicians and the public alike.
‘Traffication’ is quite a depressing read at times but, unlike many current environmental books, it ends with a chapter of well-argued reasons for optimism if we manage to take a few simple but realistic steps in the right direction. We should all want to do something because the living world of animals and plants is vital to us, and, argues Donald, we can all actually do something in practice because traffic is a part of all our lives. I recommend reading this book as a great way to find out more about the problem and what can be done about it.
February 4, 2024
You might expect polemic from the title, but this is an elegantly written and constructed book which manages to be both damning and encouraging. Possibly too encouraging that we, vested interests included, will do 'what we can about it'. More of this sort of intelligent book (intelligent in the emotional as well as academic sense), widely read (and it is not a long or dense volume), can only help be part of the solution)
The author starts with some history and that's important because he shows how cycling and then motoring were impelled from the beginning by the notion of getting out into the countryside. The balance of statistics, graphs, notes worked well and, despite reading chunks in the middle of the night, almost nowhere did my eyes glaze over because of the text.
The key feature about the book is that it shows how roads and traffic have a whole range of serious impacts on wildlife - roadkill, habitat fragmentation and climate change are only part of it and perhaps not even the biggest parts. It also has a good deal to say about how the human animal is also harmed, and, unsurprisingly but still extremely ironically, disproportionately those who don't have access to a car themselves.
The 'what we can do about it' section is less than 10% of the book, perhaps because many of the points have already been amply if largely implicitly made in the preceding chapters. There is a mix of ideas which are very little about screaming that cars are bad and you shouldn't have them (though he quietly begins the book describing his parents who don't and never have had) and there's very little about public transport either. There are individual things that can be done right now on every journey made (or not made) and things which are for us to press governments to do. I particularly liked the way he highlighted precedent as reason for optimism - the banning of lead in petrol for example and the reduction in vehicle emissions because of regulation.
The author starts with some history and that's important because he shows how cycling and then motoring were impelled from the beginning by the notion of getting out into the countryside. The balance of statistics, graphs, notes worked well and, despite reading chunks in the middle of the night, almost nowhere did my eyes glaze over because of the text.
The key feature about the book is that it shows how roads and traffic have a whole range of serious impacts on wildlife - roadkill, habitat fragmentation and climate change are only part of it and perhaps not even the biggest parts. It also has a good deal to say about how the human animal is also harmed, and, unsurprisingly but still extremely ironically, disproportionately those who don't have access to a car themselves.
The 'what we can do about it' section is less than 10% of the book, perhaps because many of the points have already been amply if largely implicitly made in the preceding chapters. There is a mix of ideas which are very little about screaming that cars are bad and you shouldn't have them (though he quietly begins the book describing his parents who don't and never have had) and there's very little about public transport either. There are individual things that can be done right now on every journey made (or not made) and things which are for us to press governments to do. I particularly liked the way he highlighted precedent as reason for optimism - the banning of lead in petrol for example and the reduction in vehicle emissions because of regulation.
December 16, 2025
A superbly well-researched book that makes for a sobering and eye-opening read.
4 stars instead of 5 purely because it read like an unceasing list of facts that never pauses for breath, few of which I’m likely to remember. It is very academically dense and this is to both its credit and detriment. I always struggle with non-fiction books like this, I need a narrative (and indeed it is my opinion that that is what separates a good non-fiction book from a great one). But that’s probably more to do with my own reading style than with any shortcomings of this book and so in any case, it’s worth a read.
The main takeaways are hammered home ad nauseam: firstly, roads and the cars on them are bad news for humans and their health, but especially for wildlife. In terms of slicing up the landscape to prevent movement, shedding toxic chemicals and substances into the environment, and polluting natural soundscapes to drown all else out - they are an absolute disaster. Secondly, the evidence to support this is overwhelming and as old as the oldest roads and vehicles themselves. And lastly, the radio silence and complete non-action on this issue by governments, conservation NGOs and the like, in light of said evidence is both troubling and bizarre.
We’ve clearly been asleep at the wheel on this one and it’s made me acutely aware of how the road interrupts and cuts through so many aspects of daily life, and yet how inseparable society is from the car. What a huge thing to have overlooked, what a disaster. I would hope this book would spur some sort of action from environmental groups, but I’m pessimistic. The car is too convenient and liberating. Still, it’s made me consider my own car use deeply so maybe that’s something (although it’s also made me long to know what a car-free landscape might look like).
4 stars instead of 5 purely because it read like an unceasing list of facts that never pauses for breath, few of which I’m likely to remember. It is very academically dense and this is to both its credit and detriment. I always struggle with non-fiction books like this, I need a narrative (and indeed it is my opinion that that is what separates a good non-fiction book from a great one). But that’s probably more to do with my own reading style than with any shortcomings of this book and so in any case, it’s worth a read.
The main takeaways are hammered home ad nauseam: firstly, roads and the cars on them are bad news for humans and their health, but especially for wildlife. In terms of slicing up the landscape to prevent movement, shedding toxic chemicals and substances into the environment, and polluting natural soundscapes to drown all else out - they are an absolute disaster. Secondly, the evidence to support this is overwhelming and as old as the oldest roads and vehicles themselves. And lastly, the radio silence and complete non-action on this issue by governments, conservation NGOs and the like, in light of said evidence is both troubling and bizarre.
We’ve clearly been asleep at the wheel on this one and it’s made me acutely aware of how the road interrupts and cuts through so many aspects of daily life, and yet how inseparable society is from the car. What a huge thing to have overlooked, what a disaster. I would hope this book would spur some sort of action from environmental groups, but I’m pessimistic. The car is too convenient and liberating. Still, it’s made me consider my own car use deeply so maybe that’s something (although it’s also made me long to know what a car-free landscape might look like).
August 6, 2024
I thought this was an excellent book, delving into the effects of cars, roads and driving on the natural world in a clear, concise manner and presenting pretty dire research without overwhelming you (well, me) with total doom and gloom. It is, in fact, a pretty hopeful book, despite all of the rather damning evidence of the harms of traffication.
I read a library copy, but would like to purchase this book, both to have a copy for myself (WHAT a notes and bibliography section) but also to give to people.
It should be noted that I am someone who already goes out of their way to not be driving, so some of my excitement for this book could be that it reinforces my pre-existing biases. That said, I think Donald's thorough research speaks for itself.
I read a library copy, but would like to purchase this book, both to have a copy for myself (WHAT a notes and bibliography section) but also to give to people.
It should be noted that I am someone who already goes out of their way to not be driving, so some of my excitement for this book could be that it reinforces my pre-existing biases. That said, I think Donald's thorough research speaks for itself.
July 19, 2023
Nobody else has reviewed this book, and I can find no publish reviews, which is a great shame and loss. I have read the book and find it convincing that, as the author argues, traffication (a word that covers the number of cars, their speed, and the spread of roads) may well be as important as industrial agriculture, destruction of habitats, and climate change (so far) in causing the catastrophic collapse in wildlife in Britain and other countries.
My blog tht explains how traffication does that is here:
https://richardswsmith.wordpress.com/...
My blog tht explains how traffication does that is here:
https://richardswsmith.wordpress.com/...
August 25, 2024
The publication of the paperback edition of Traffication (August 2024) is great news, as this is a wonderful book which deserves the widest possible audience. It develops an important idea: we have a problem (how did we fail to notice?), but we can all do something about it and it need not be painful. The book is a brilliant example of how to piece together the best scientific evidence to build an argument, and communicate it in a way that anyone can understand. The brisk pace, without compromising on accuracy, and writing style make it a pleasure to read.
February 10, 2025
Probably a bit dense to get the wider audience it deserves but a fascinating read on the rise of motor traffic and its impact on wildlife (not just climate change). The key is driving less and driving slower which as a cycle campaigner and supporter of 20mph areas pleases me a lot!
December 1, 2023
Excellent. Slightly britished focused on how the car is terrible for nature.
January 11, 2024
Very good and interesting. Suffers slightly from another, very good car-related book being published in the same year (Daniel Knowles' Carmageddon)
December 14, 2024
I wanted to burn every car on the road after reading this book. This read came after “Paved Paradise” - Grabar, and yes I think I can say that I’ve been radicalized
December 20, 2024
This is such an important book and, as the quote on the front from James Rebanks says, everyone who cares about nature should read it.
Paul Donald has worked as a conservation scientist for RSPB and Birdlife International for over 30 years so the book is informed by his in-depth knowledge of scientific research on road ecology. He uses this expertise to make a convincing case that roads and the vehicles that use them are causing just as much damage to wildlife as threats such as intensive agriculture and habitat loss which get far more attention. But he writes in an accessible, and occasionally humorous, style which enables him to present all the evidence he has gathered in a way that makes it easy to follow, even if it us sometimes very difficult to read in the sense that it is so shocking.
The majority of the book which focuses on the first part of the sub-title deserves 5 stars as Donald presents the research on how cars are destroying in such a compelling way. The reason I've given it 4 stars is that the last couple of chapters which look at what we can do about this are weaker and fail to address some of the key opportunities for car dependency. I've written about more about the book, including my thoughts on some of the solutions Donald could have proposed. here: https://ruthbradshaw.substack.com/p/t...
Paul Donald has worked as a conservation scientist for RSPB and Birdlife International for over 30 years so the book is informed by his in-depth knowledge of scientific research on road ecology. He uses this expertise to make a convincing case that roads and the vehicles that use them are causing just as much damage to wildlife as threats such as intensive agriculture and habitat loss which get far more attention. But he writes in an accessible, and occasionally humorous, style which enables him to present all the evidence he has gathered in a way that makes it easy to follow, even if it us sometimes very difficult to read in the sense that it is so shocking.
The majority of the book which focuses on the first part of the sub-title deserves 5 stars as Donald presents the research on how cars are destroying in such a compelling way. The reason I've given it 4 stars is that the last couple of chapters which look at what we can do about this are weaker and fail to address some of the key opportunities for car dependency. I've written about more about the book, including my thoughts on some of the solutions Donald could have proposed. here: https://ruthbradshaw.substack.com/p/t...
May 20, 2024
Really incredibly informational and not like anything I'd read before. Tackles environmental issues I wasn't aware of. It's pretty academically dense but was worth pushing through. Heard about the author from The War on Cars podcast.
July 18, 2025
Fascinating and important account of how roads and traffic causes death and destruction in far more ways than just road kill. Thoroughly researched and compellingly presented.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews