WASHINGTON — Here are some things about traffic congestion to think about while waiting for the light to change:

• Pedestrians could get more crossing time. "Walk" signals and other pedestrian controls currently assume that people cross streets at a pace of 3.5 feet per second. That would drop to 3 feet under a pending Federal Highway Administration proposal, according to Doug Hecox, an agency spokesman. "Pedestrians are getting older and heavier," he explained. At busy urban intersections, pedestrians would gain 2 to 4 seconds at drivers' expense.
• Commuting really is hell. Working women in a 2006 Texas survey rated driving to work their least favorite activity. Work itself came in second. Then came the commute home.
» read more

WASHINGTON — Fine-tuning controls on the nation's traffic signals would cut U.S. road congestion by as much as 10 percent, transportation experts estimate.

It would also reduce air pollution from vehicles by as much as a fifth, cut accidents at intersections and save about five tanks of gas annually per household, according to the National Transportation Operations Coalition, an alliance of federal, state and local traffic departments and equipment-makers.

That's the good news. The bad news is that the average local traffic department earned an overall grade of D on the alliance's latest report card. Streamlining intersections is happening in only some cities and states, even though it's eminently doable. » read more

The meat in your freezer from the deer you shot last fall may be contaminated with tiny fragments of lead from the bullets that killed it.

A study released today by the Peregrine Fund and Washington State University shows that people who consume venison from game animals killed with lead bullets risk ingestion of the poisonous metal. Tiny amounts of lead can cause brain development problems in children.

Even amounts previously considered safe in adults are now known to increase rates of death from heart attack and stroke. » read more

WASHINGTON — Higher airfares are "inevitable" this summer to help airlines absorb soaring fuel costs, the head of the trade association that represents the nation's leading air carriers predicted Tuesday.

James C. May, the president and chief executive officer of the Air Transport Association, declined to speculate on the size of fare increases, but he said that rising ticket prices are unavoidable as airlines struggle with unprecedented increases in the cost of fuel.

Jet fuel prices, he said, are approaching $170 a barrel, which he called "absolutely uncharted territory." » read more

It's the American Melting Pot, version 2.0.

A wide-ranging and provocative new study of immigrants' integration into U.S. society has concluded that newcomers today are assimilating more quickly than their predecessors did 100 years ago — with Cubans, Vietnamese and Filipinos among those leading the way.

But Mexicans, by far the most numerous nationality, lag significantly behind other big immigrant groups, possibly because a lack of legal status keeps many Mexican immigrants from advancing. » read more