Behind the Wheel


Book Description

Thirty-six poems look at various aspects of driving, including passing the written driver's test, being pulled over by a cop, and having an accident, and treat them as metaphors for life.




Zen Driving


Book Description

Zen Driving can make each driving experience enjoyable, whether it’s a daily hour-long drive to work, or a ten-minute run to the local Safeway. You may well ask, what is Zen driving? The Japanese word zen literally means meditation, and meditation means being fully aware, fully in touch with your surroundings. When you are in a meditative state, you are in your natural self, your Buddha self—and you can do it while driving. But why Zen driving? The purpose of Zen Driving, the book, is to introduce you to your natural self, which is what remains when you still your mind and ignore your chattering ego. When you do this, you gain confidence in your ability, and finally you are that ability. The frustrations of other drivers cutting you off or causing you to sit through two red lights because they’re too timid to make a left turn on yellow will no longer make your blood pressure explode. Zen Driving will teach you to look, simply observe without qualification, and then make your move. Zen driving is effortless, spontaneous, nondeliberate. It is being one with the road. And in turn, driving becomes a pathway to consciousness, an activity that clears the mind and soothes the soul, something to take with you all those other times when you’re not behind the wheel.




Behind the Wheel


Book Description

Introducing legendary stars of the thrilling world of the automobile. In Behind the Wheel, Robert Puyal presents eighty idols of the automobile world, including pioneers of the automotive industry, champion racing drivers, superstar car aficionados, and celebrated fictional characters. Among the inspirational figures featured is Henry Ford, who, overcoming his illiteracy, broke the land speed record with a machine of his own design. He went on to make the joys of driving available to the widest possible public with his innovative, mass-produced Ford Model T. From a similarly modest background, Juan Manuel Fangio started out as a mechanic in a small village in Argentina, competing in perilous amateur road races before his talent was finally discovered. Sent to Europe on a government grant, he won five Formula One world championships, becoming arguably the greatest driver in the history of the sport. Steve McQueen and Paul Newman are among the many Hollywood stars to have been bitten by the racing bug; when James Dean met his death behind the wheel of his Porsche 550 RS nicknamed "Little Bastard," a legend was born. Meanwhile, cars themselves have also played starring roles onscreen: 007's trademark Aston Martins have endured continual destruction in the James Bond films over the years, only to become enduring big screen icons in their own right. High-speed thrills have always attracted a cast of characters as diverse as it is devoted, and this book is a classic tribute.




Behind the Wheel at Chrysler


Book Description

A Detroit Free Press reporter demythologizes Lee Iacocca's leadership of Chrysler, demonstrating how salesmanship and self-promotion invariably trumped innovation and investment. "Everyone who cares about american industry should read [this book]" (New York Times Book Review). Index.




Sound and Safe


Book Description

This book traces the full history of noise in and around cars, shows how we created auditory privacy in our cars, even though they were highly noisy things at the beginning of the twentieth century. It is about the sounds of car engines, tires, wipers, blinkers, warning signals, in-car audio systems and, ultimately, about how we became used to listen while driving.




Never Stop Driving


Book Description

With glorious photography and sharp writing, Never Stop Driving presents the case for the mental and social benefits of driving and engaging with automobiles. It also shows you—from dreaming about a car to living with it—how to jump in and get the most from your machine. There’s never been a better time to go for a drive. As a nation, we are chronically overstressed, overworked, and not sleeping enough. Worse yet, our digital devices are taking ever increasing chunks of what remaining free time we do have. Activities that force us to engage with ourselves and the environment around us are needed more than ever. Might I suggest a spin in a four-wheeled escape pod? The car—the act of driving, repairing, maintaining—drives out distraction and demands we be “present.” Making the car a pursuit invites not just the freedom of the road, but the potential to connect with thousands of like-minded individuals as well as the pleasure of simply caring for the machine. Further, there’s the thrill of commanding an object that represents a high point of human ingenuity and design. Cars invite passion. The first step is embracing the itch and acting on it. Learn how to choose your perfect weekend car, hunt for it, and make the deal. Then, find peace in the wrenches with tips on taking the plunge into maintaining your ride, including how your car can be an opportunity to tear your kids away from their screens and strengthen your bond with them. Next, explore the joy of driving, from scenic byways to taking your car to its performance limit. You’ll also tour the various highlights of the driving life, like how to become an automotive archaeologist, the possibilities for those short on cash but high for adventure, the car as a social gathering point, and what the future with autonomous cars means for those who love to drive. Never Stop Driving shines some light on why we find these machines so captivating, offering some inspiration and validation, and finally inviting those who are curious but haven’t made the leap to get in the car. Let’s roll.




You Drive Like an Asshole


Book Description

You Drive Like an Asshole includes 101 letters to tell off all the asshole drivers you encounter on the road, each letter conveniently perforated so you can tear it out and give it to the desired offender. The world is full of asshole drivers -- but now you can fight back! Ever wish you could leave a note for the asshole not paying attention to the road, or the asshole hauling the speedboat, or the asshole with the Duct-taped-on fender? Now you can! Whether it's the asshole driving on a flat tire, the asshole who blocked you in, the asshole bus driver, or the senior citizen asshole, you should never get on the road without this useful book ever again! Letters include: Dear Asshole Too Young to Afford That Car Dear Rush-Hour-Taxi-Driving Asshole Dear Asshole Driving Way Too Slow Dear Asshole Driving Way Too Fast Dear Unmarked-Police-Car Asshole Dear Asshole Driving on a Mini Spare Tire Dear VNTY-PLT ASSHL Dear Asshole Driving in the Carpool Lane And more!




Illinois 2021 Rules of the Road


Book Description

Illinois 2021 Rules of the Road handbook, drive safe!




Lady Driver


Book Description

In 2008, when the Azad Foundation, an NGO based in Delhi, began training women to become drivers of commercial and private vehicles, most people thought they were somewhat out of touch with reality. Poor, illiterate women, many of them from violent homes, some of them single mothers, others from families and communities which had never allowed women to step out of the home - how could these women take the wheel, drive around in unsafe cities, be confident and competent, earn money? At the time, there was only one known woman auto driver in Delhi. When Azad turned to radio cab companies to suggest they take in women drivers, there wasn't much interest. Today, more than 300 women drivers have received training from Azad and are on the roads of several cities. Nine years after radio companies turned Azad away, special services for women with women drivers are being introduced within these same companies. In 2015, the Delhi Transport Corporation got its first woman driver, and in 2016, the Delhi Commission for Women recruited 25 women drivers to be part of their women's helpline. Clearly, things are changing. Lady Driver maps the journeys of twelve women from poor, marginalized communities who have transformed their lives by taking up the challenge of becoming women drivers. Each story is unique; there's no Cinderella effect here. Reality does not change overnight. Instead, as the women featured here painstakingly claim a relationship with the road, it translates into claims for identity, for dignity, for a livelihood. Their stories are of beginnings, but have no endings; for our lady drivers, there are many roads still to travel.




Spent behind the Wheel


Book Description

Exploring professional passenger driving and the gig economy through feminist theories of labor Are taxi drivers in today’s era of the ride-hail app performing care work akin to domestic and household labor? So argue the authors of Spent behind the Wheel. Bringing together sociological and legal perspectives with feminist theoretical insights, Julietta Hua and Kasturi Ray examine the case study of contemporary professional passenger driving in the United States. On the one hand, they show, the rise of the gig economy has brought new attention to the industry of professional passenger driving. On the other hand, the vulnerabilities that professional drivers experience remain hidden. Drawing on interviews with drivers, labor organizers, and members of licensing commissions, as well as case law and other published resources, Hua and Ray argue that working for ride-hail companies like Uber and Lyft shares similarities with driving for taxi companies in the impact on driver lives. Lyft and Uber sell the idea of industry disruption, but in fact they entrench long-standing modes of extracting the reproductive labor of their drivers for the benefit of consumer lives. Reproductive labor—conventionally understood as feminized labor—is extracted, but masked, behind the masculinized, racialized bodies of drivers. Professional driving is thus best understood alongside domestic and other gendered service work as reproductive labors devalued and often demonetized to benefit the national economy. Spent behind the Wheel is a must for readers interested in critical studies of technological change and the gig economy, showing how drivers’ capacities are drained for the benefit of riders, corporations, and the maintenance of the racial state.