sprawl – UrbanCincy

Will Automated Driving Lead to More Sprawl?

As technology and automobile companies invest heavily in making driver-less cars a reality the impacts and consequences of this developing technology will be hard to predict. One auto manufacturer, Toyota, is warning that the phenomenon may lead to more fuel usage and sprawl. More from Bloomberg News:

“U.S. history shows that anytime you make driving easier, there seems to be this inexhaustible desire to live further from things,” Laberteaux said. “The pattern we’ve seen for a century is people turn more speed into more travel, rather than maybe saying ‘I’m going to use my reduced travel time by spending more time with my family.’”

The Fragility of the Sprawl Economy

Auto-dependent development surely helped create economic fragility argues guest blogger Sam Bunting at Strong Towns. This was seen in Detroit where suburban growth helped destroy the central city. While Cincinnati is in a far different position than the Motor City, this is a teachable moment to cities and suburbs who continue to rely on automobile oriented development as a measure of success. Read more at Strong Towns:

One measure of Princeton’s fragility is our limited ability to react to changing economic demands. We know that there is growing demand for compact, walkable homes. But we struggle to add those homes, because people have got used to the idea that Princeton is a low-density ‘burb, instead of the compact, walkable town that it was throughout most of its history. Worse, residents in more suburban neighborhoods are so dependent on cars that they tend to oppose walkable development based on the slightest possibility that it will reduce the availability of parking in the downtown.