Carectomy.com: Removing Cars from People

Urban Sprawl Skyrockets

Written by Kate Trainor

Monday, 31 December 2007

If it weren’t for widespread urban sprawl, getting a carectomy would be a fairly painless operation. Mom and Pop would put Big Box out of business, and we could park our cars permanently in favor of walking, pedaling, or taking public transit to pick up groceries. We’d prefer this to driving a dozen miles for a gallon of milk (which has probably been trucked in from a farm far, far away, and pumped with hormones for flavor). Everything we’d need would be right there, at our fingertips–not fifteen exits down the freeway.

Contrary to reports that urban sprawl is on the decline, a new study, which used more comprehensive data than previous studies, says that sprawl is actually on the rise, and has skyrocketed since the 1960’s. It boils down to big business: Developers will break ground as long as people are willing to pay for it—and they’re finding fresh, cheap land further and further away from the city.

From Science Daily:

“We found that the areas where sprawl increased the most were in the exurban areas – out beyond even the suburbs,” said Elena Irwin, co-author of the study and associate professor of environmental economics at Ohio State University.

The study looked for evidence of fragmented land use – areas where housing was juxtaposed with agriculture or forested areas, for example. That's one of the basic hallmarks of sprawl.

Results showed the level of peak land-use fragmentation was 60 percent greater in 2000 as it was in 1973, and shifted outward from the central cities to a distance of 55 miles in 2000, up from about 40 miles in 1973.

Fragmented land use increased the most in non-urban areas located about 80 miles from the nearest city, the researchers found.

“People are moving further and further away from the center of cities and increasingly more people are living on larger lots,” she said. “That's increasing the level of sprawl.”

As urban dwellers tire of paying top-dollar for tiny apartments, they’re gravitating to the boondocks to get more bang for their buck. Sprawlers often build brand-new constructions and raze wooded areas so that they can host summer barbecues in a big back yard and drive over an hour to-and-from work (probably in a 4WD SUV, which they need, naturally, to make the rugged trek from their gravel drive to the freeway entrance).

Irwin told Science Daily:

“We find lots of evidence for increases in sprawl further out, but very little evidence for infill development closer to the central city,” she said. “It contradicts the basic idea of an orderly development process.” [my emphasis]

“The results reflect the diminished pull of city centers,” Irwin said. More people have jobs in suburban areas, or are telecommuting, and no longer have the need or desire to live close to the major cities, she explained.

The trend is rich in idiocy and irony: The amenities—like lakes and forests—that appeal to sprawlers and lure them from the city are the very treasures they’re destroying. How long before quiet walks through the woods mean a stroll past pools, pavement, and aluminum siding?

Photos via flickr by by Billy V & Potjie.

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