speed limit a waste of time, effort?

http://www.k-state.edu/media/newsreleases/april09/speedlimit41009.html

MANHATTAN -- Kansas gravel roads have varying speed limits, but a study by Kansas State University researchers shows that instead of abiding by those limits, people are more likely to use their own judgment to gauge how fast they should drive on the roads.

D: that book "Traffic" had an alternative solution.

Instead of wide lanes, clear of obstacles to the sides, instead make the road seem narrow and hemmed in. Drivers who ought to drive 50kph will only do so when the road only *feels* safe at 50.

I think one city created an extended different-coloured faux gutter that seemed to eat up a coupla feet of road width.

There is the issue of making room for fire trucks.

I wonder if we could use more but smaller trucks for 'burbs.

ocean unexpected source of sulphur dioxide

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090401.wshipping01/BNStory/International/home

The proposal was made public on Monday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which said the move could save up to 8,300 lives annually in the two countries because of the large number of premature deaths caused by smog and other air contaminants from ships

Ships are big polluters because they burn a low quality, asphalt-like fuel laced with impurities such as sulphur left over from the refining process after cleaner items, such as gasoline, are produced. "It's basically garbage that's being sold as fuel," said Beatrice Olivastri, chief executive officer of Friends of the Earth Canada. The shippers are "using our atmosphere as a free garbage can," she said.

D: and after all that effort removing it from auto fuel.

A compromise that involves using dirty fuel on the high seas, but clean fuel near land could work.