Please, "cut through" my neighborhood!

Often, I hear people concerned about cars "cutting through" their neighborhoods or commercial drives. The very idea of "cutting through" implies that there is a (single) primary route that should be used. 

However, those same people are likely to complain about the traffic congestion on the primary route, and themselves will seek alternate paths.

In a well-designed town or city, and certainly in a historic grid-iron city, there is less a sense of a single primary route. There are simply multiple alternatives to get where you're going.  All routes are primary...and all routes are "cutting through."

Oh, and for those of you who live on cul-de-sacs...your child is more likely to be injured or killed on a cul-de-sac than regular streets with on-street parking.  (I owe you a source...but trust me, it's a legitimate statistic) The un-health of suburbs is a whole other topic.

While I'm citing statistics (that I don't feel like digging up sources for...) a four-lane street with a left turn lane is the maximum of efficiency.  Any additional lanes add capacity, but with a decreasing return on investment in terms of efficiency. And, those additional lanes add a great deal of increased danger for pedestrians and automobiles.