Of water and snow and traffic

I was riding the bus this morning and we stopped on the bridge over the expressway. (It was the Edens, for anyone who really must know.) The cars' lights were on, and they glittered and sparkled. It looked a lot like a stream flowing slowly over rocks. I wondered to myself, would traffic flow better if we better understood fluid dynamics? Would we be able to find a way to make it flow free of obstructions?

I also happened to notice that the street (Addison) in front of work is a Chicago Snow Route. What this means is that, when there is too much snow on the ground (like, say, 54 inches), cars cannot park on the street (or that side of the street). It also means that people cannot put out really ugly lawn furniture or other parking-spot-saving hideous-items in order to keep other people from parking in the spot they took hours (days) to shovel clear. I didn't notice the snow route sign before. I wonder if I am usually that half-asleep when I walk by it, or if they just put them up.