This is a bit off-topic:
Corey, they have done numerous studies showing that lights, crosswalks, signs, etc actually make things more dangerous for both pedestrians and for motorists. When driving is made easy like this a motorist can allow their mind to wander, and so their reaction time is significantly increased. Remove the sings and lights and the motorist is forced to wake up and pay attention.
People are products of their environment. Design a situation where motorists can drive fast without thinking about it, and motorist and pedestrian fatalities go up. Design a place where a motorist can not possibly drive above a certain speed, and they will not drive above that speed. One way of doing this is to abandon the suburban street heirarchy which has replaced the traditional grid. One of the orignal motivations for the heirarchy was the faster vehicle speeds attained by removing right angle turns. We now know that is a terrible idea especially for a residential area where children might be playing in the street - and in fact you tend to see fewer children playing in the street where there is a heirarchy, and more children playing where there is a grid because it is safer.
My point as it relates to implementing sustainability is that we cannot rely on the goodwill of people to change their behavior. People are products of their environment and their current environment encourages consumption and waste. So long as our elected leaders tell us that "The American way of life is non-negotiable" and to "Go shopping America", we will not change at all. Not to mention all the ridiculous crap they put on MTV like "cribs" which promotes materialism, or in the words of Dave Chappele "to get people to value stupid shit." If we want people to change, change their environment.
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