For Eric and Meggan – I heard an interesting article
about cul-de-sacs on NPR this morning on my way to work.  I
thought you’d might like to listen, seeing as you live on one!
One interesting tidbit:

“Lucy says cul-de-sac communities
turn out to have some of the highest rates of traffic accidents
involving young children.  [higher than through streets] The actual research about injuries and deaths to small children under
five is that the main cause of death is being backed over, not being
driven over forward,” he says. “And it would be expected that the main
people doing the backing over would in fact be family members, usually
the parents.”