The Sprawl Cycle: Why Technological Advancements Continue to Promote Inefficient Horizontal Urban Growth

Abstract

In preparation for a significantly growing population over the next 50 years, urban planners and developers have the task of designing and building cities that can efficiently and responsibly provide housing in a sustainable manner. Looming problems such as climate change and mobility throughout the city, create difficult problems that need to be addressed in future planning. There are many influences that affect the urban fabric of a geographic area. But, what is the key element to consider in future planning to best address anticipated substantial increases in urban population? To answer this, I examined two city models: (1) urban sprawl (horizontal growth) and (2) dense cities (vertical growth) and compared two crucial aspects of their sustainability: transit methods and environmental influences. For urban sprawl, I examined first, what is sprawl, then looked at the history of urban sprawl, and finally examined the cyclical nature of urban sprawl. The goal of this section is to best define a way to classify sprawl and then identify the motivators that contribute to growth. This then facilitates the deduction as to whether or not, it is predictable. Then, I examine the most well-known example of urban sprawl, Los Angeles, California and then analyze the environmental issues and transit efficiency to determine if the city planning style is as detrimental as theorists suggest. Then I discuss the antithesis of sprawl, ‘smart growth’. Smart growth is a city design theory that is based on limiting the amount of horizontal growth and creating diverse transit systems that can help to maximize efficiency in an environmentally sustainable manner. As an example of smart growth, I look deeply at an American example of unplanned smart growth, New York City. New York City fits many of the characteristics smart growth that many proponents desire in a city. New York is a robust case study useful to determine the efficacy of this design system. In a similar fashion to my analysis for Los Angeles, I analyze the transit efficiency and environmental sustainability of New York City. This provides an in depth exploration of the effectiveness of the smart growth theory. Lastly in this section, I look at European planning systems that are known for their urban density and I will relate these to the characteristics of New York City. Thereafter, I present and examine the arguments for urban sprawl. While it is commonly regarded as an inefficient system of design, it is prudent and useful to re-examine the theories for and against urban sprawl to determine its validity. This then facilitates a comparison between the competing models: urban sprawl and smart growth and allows my analysis to more fully consider the ideal planning method based on the modern concerns of environmental sustainability and transit efficiency. The next segment explains the current risk of another sprawl cycle by looking at large corporations and their popular products that create less of a dependency on physically being in the city as automobiles did in the mid-20th century. While these products benefit their users, they provide an array of dangers in terms of their role in contributing to the long term development of urban sprawl. I then analyze seven different products encompassing three different industries, that all increase the freedom and mobility for users. In addition, I also summarize these influences and consider the negative results they may have. I also discuss in depth, the need for optimized city planning based on current population statistics and trends while referencing the negative components of the designs we have. This section is all about scale. If the problems we have now are based on a global population of between 7-8 billion people, what can we anticipate to happen when that number reaches 11 billion, as is predicted. This analysis leads to a number of conclusions and possible solutions to prevent consumer interests from promoting a design style that has the potential to create chaos our cities and overwhelm the earth’s finite resources. I also describe the problem and needs for urban planners, evaluate current systems, determine solutions, and display initiatives and highlight principals going forward that can prevent catastrophe.