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77-501: Two Stadtbahn lines are former light railway lines and connect to the cities of Duisburg ( D-Bahn , U79) and Krefeld via Meerbusch ( K-Bahn , U70/U76). The neighbouring city of Neuss is connected to the Rheinbahn network by Stadtbahn line U75 and tram line 709. The neighbouring city of Ratingen is connected by Stadtbahn line U72. Rheinbahn's bus lines cover Düsseldorf , Meerbusch and most parts of Kreis Mettmann . Rheinbahn

154-540: A break-of-gauge with other states. The cost savings were due to light rails, low axleloads and low speeds as much as due to the gauge. Tasmania , Western Australia and South Australia followed suit with the narrow gauge to reduce costs, though South Australia ended up with an inefficient two-gauge system which negated some of the supposed cost savings of the narrow gauge. New South Wales resisted calls to introduce narrow gauge, but did adopt pioneer lines with 30 kg/m (60.5 lb/yd) rails to reduce costs without

231-442: A destructive pattern of growth in an endless quest to move away from the sprawl that only results in creating more of it. Urban sprawl is associated with a number of negative environmental outcomes. One of the major environmental problems associated with sprawl is land consumption , habitat loss and subsequent reduction in biodiversity . A review by Brian Czech and colleagues finds that urbanization endangers more species and

308-656: A growing trend in America's metropolitan areas. The Brookings Institution has published multiple articles on the topic. In 2005, author Michael Stoll defined job sprawl simply as jobs located more than 5-mile (8.0 km) radius from the CBD, and measured the concept based on year 2000 U.S. Census data. Other ways of measuring the concept with more detailed rings around the CBD include a 2001 article by Edward Glaeser and Elizabeth Kneebone's 2009 article, which show that sprawling urban peripheries are gaining employment while areas closer to

385-661: A pejorative way. According to the National Resources Inventory (NRI), about 44 million acres (69,000 sq mi; 180,000 km ) of land in the United States was developed between 1982 and 2017. Presently, the NRI classifies approximately 100,000 more square kilometres (40,000 square miles) (an area approximately the size of Kentucky ) as developed than the Census Bureau classifies as urban. The difference in

462-408: A planning approach and those advocating the efficiency of the market". Those who criticize sprawl tend to argue that sprawl creates more problems than it solves and should be more heavily regulated, while proponents argue that markets are producing the economically most efficient settlements possible in most situations, even if problems may exist. However, some market-oriented commentators believe that

539-446: A result, the places where people live, work, shop, and recreate are far from one another, usually to the extent that walking, transit use and bicycling are impractical, so all these activities generally require a car. The degree to which different land uses are mixed together is often used as an indicator of sprawl in studies of the subject. According to this criterion, China's urbanization can be classified as "high-density sprawl",

616-429: A seemingly self-contradictory term coined by New Urbanist Peter Calthorpe . He explains that despite the high-rise buildings, China's superblocks (huge residential blocks) are largely single-use and surrounded by giant arterial roads, which detach different functions of a city and create an environment unfriendly to pedestrians. Job sprawl is another land use symptom of urban sprawl and car-dependent communities. It

693-683: A vague description; the purpose of the act is for building railways easily with less stringent standards and at low cost. The light railway concept in Japan is therefore similar to the UK and other countries. Many light railways were built for passengers or as military , industrial or forest railways in Japan, and in Japan's colonies in Taiwan , Korea , Manchuria , Sakhalin and Micronesia . Some light railways were destroyed during World War II , especially in Okinawa . By

770-426: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Light railway A light railway is a railway built at lower costs and to lower standards than typical "heavy rail": it uses lighter-weight track, and may have more steep gradients and tight curves to reduce civil engineering costs. These lighter standards allow lower costs of operation, at the price of lower vehicle capacity. The precise meaning of

847-454: Is a cheap railway and a second class of railway." These terms are not pejorative, they simply recognise that the standards of main-line heavy railways are not needed in all situations. Their great advantage under UK law was that they avoided the need for an expensive act of parliament before each new line; they only required a much simpler Light Railway Order within the terms of the Act. The term

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924-584: Is a member of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (VRR), the public transport association covering the area of the Rhine-Ruhr megalopolis . Between 1980 and 2001, Rheinbahn issued employment contracts which failed to set an end for the salary payments, resulting in these employees receiving their salaries until their deaths. Although the company indicated that it was attempting to resolve this contractual oversight amicably, this strategy relied entirely on

1001-417: Is a natural product of population increases, higher wages, and therefore better access to housing. Improvement in transportation also means that individuals are able to live further from large cities and industrial hubs, thus increasing demand for better housing further from the noise of cities. This leads to the creation of sprawling residential land development surrounding densely packed urban areas. Despite

1078-454: Is also used more generally of any lightly built railway with limited traffic, often controlled locally and running unusual or older rolling stock . A light railway is properly distinct from a tramway which operates under differing rules and may share a road. The term "light railway" is generally used in a positive manner. Perhaps the most well-known caricature of a light railway is the film The Titfield Thunderbolt , made in 1953 as many of

1155-479: Is argued that human beings, while social animals, need significant amounts of social space or they become agitated and aggressive. However, the relationship between higher densities and increased social pathology has been largely discredited. According to Nancy Chin, a large number of effects of sprawl have been discussed in the academic literature in some detail; however, the most contentious issues can be reduced "to an older set of arguments, between those advocating

1232-525: Is commonly linked to increased dependency on cars. In 2003, a British newspaper calculated that urban sprawl would cause an economic loss of £3,905 per year, per person through cars alone, based on data from the RAC estimating that the average cost of operating a car in the UK at that time was £5,000 a year, while train travel (assuming a citizen commutes every day of the year, with a ticket cost of 3 pounds) would be only £1,095. Additionally, increased density increases

1309-571: Is defined as low-density, geographically spread-out patterns of employment, where the majority of jobs in a given metropolitan area are located outside of the main city's central business district (CBD), and increasingly in the suburban periphery. It is often the result of urban disinvestment , the geographic freedom of employment location allowed by predominantly car-dependent commuting patterns of many American suburbs, and many companies' desire to locate in low-density areas that are often more affordable and offer potential for expansion. Spatial mismatch

1386-414: Is defined by negative characteristics. What constitutes sprawl may be considered a matter of degree and will always be somewhat subjective under many definitions of the term. Ewing has also argued that suburban development does not, per se , constitute sprawl depending on the form it takes, although Gordon & Richardson have argued that the term is sometimes used synonymously with suburbanization in

1463-511: Is due. Thus urban sprawl is subsidized by the tax code. In China, land has been converted from rural to urban use in advance of demand, leading to vacant rural land intended for future development, and eventual urban sprawl. Housing subdivisions are large tracts of land consisting entirely of newly built residences. New Urbanist architectural firm Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company state that housing subdivisions "are sometimes called villages, towns, and neighbourhoods by their developers, which

1540-665: Is in contrast to New York, San Francisco or Chicago which have compact, high-density cores surrounded by areas of very low-density suburban periphery, such as eastern Suffolk County in the New York metro area and Marin County in the San Francisco Bay Area . Some cases of sprawl challenge the definition of the term and what conditions are necessary for urban growth to be considered sprawl. Metropolitan regions such as Greater Mexico City , Delhi National Capital Region Beijing , and

1617-422: Is misleading since those terms denote places that are not exclusively residential". They are also referred to as developments. Subdivisions often incorporate curved roads and cul-de-sacs . These subdivisions may offer only a few places to enter and exit the development, causing traffic to use high volume collector streets. All trips, no matter how short, must enter the collector road in a suburban system. After

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1694-619: Is more geographically ubiquitous in the mainland United States than any other human activity. Urban sprawl is disruptive to native flora & fauna and introduces invasive plants into their environments. Although the effects can be mitigated through careful maintenance of native vegetation, the process of ecological succession and public education, sprawl represents one of the primary threats to biodiversity. Regions with high birth rates and immigration are therefore faced with environmental problems due to unplanned urban growth and emerging megacities such as Kolkata. Other problems include: At

1771-442: Is often regarded unsustainable". Bhatta et al. wrote in 2010 that despite a dispute over the precise definition of sprawl, there is a "general consensus that urban sprawl is characterized by [an] unplanned and uneven pattern of growth, driven by a multitude of processes and leading to inefficient resource utilization". Reid Ewing has shown that sprawl has typically been characterized as urban developments exhibiting at least one of

1848-416: Is related to job sprawl and economic environmental justice . Spatial mismatch is defined as the situation where poor urban, predominantly minority citizens are left without easy access to entry-level jobs, as a result of increasing job sprawl and limited transportation options to facilitate a reverse commute to the suburbs. Job sprawl has been documented and measured in various ways. It has been shown to be

1925-649: Is the shopping mall . Unlike the strip mall, this is usually composed of a single building surrounded by a parking lot that contains multiple shops, usually "anchored" by one or more department stores . The function and size is also distinct from the strip mall. The focus is almost exclusively on recreational shopping rather than daily goods. Shopping malls also tend to serve a wider (regional) public and require higher-order infrastructure such as highway access and can have floorspaces in excess of 1 million sq ft (93,000 m ). Shopping malls are often detrimental to downtown shopping centres of nearby cities since

2002-819: The Cato Institute , a libertarian think tank , has argued that sprawl, thanks to the automobile, gave rise to affordable suburban neighborhoods for middle class and lower class individuals, including non-whites. He notes that efforts to combat sprawl often result in subsidizing development in wealthier and whiter neighborhoods while condemning and demolishing poorer minority neighborhoods. The American Institute of Architects , American Planning Association , and Smart Growth America recommend against sprawl and instead endorses smart , mixed-use development , including buildings in close proximity to one another that cut down on automobile use, save energy, and promote walkable, healthy, well-designed neighborhoods. The Sierra Club ,

2079-708: The Greater Tokyo Area are often regarded as sprawling despite being relatively dense and mixed use. Many theories speculate as to the reason for the creation of urban sprawl. The theory of "flight from blight" explains that aspects of living in urban areas, such as high taxes, crime rates, poor infrastructure and school qualities lead to many people moving out of urban areas and into surrounding suburban areas. According to The Limits to Growth , reasons why wealthier people move to suburbs include noise, pollution, crime, drug addiction, poverty, labor strikes, and breakdown of social services. Others suggest that Urban Sprawl

2156-544: The Second World War , residential lawns became commonplace in suburbs, notably, but not exclusively in North America. The development of country clubs and golf courses in the early 20th century further promoted lawn culture in the United States. Lawns now take up a significant amount of land in suburban developments, contributing to sprawl. In areas of sprawl, commercial use is generally segregated from other uses. In

2233-563: The United Kingdom "light railway" refers in its strictest sense to a railway built or operated under the 1896 Light Railways Act . That Act, though, gives only a vague description; a better one is found from John Charles MacKay in the same year: "A light railway is one constructed with lighter rails and structures, running at a slower speed, with poorer accommodation for passengers and less facility for freight. It can be worked with less stringent standards of signalling and safety practice. It

2310-694: The United States , "light railway" generally refers to an urban or interurban rail system, which historically would correspond to a streetcar network. The distinct term light rail was introduced in the 1970s to describe a form of urban rail public transportation that has a lower capacity and lower speed than a heavy rail or metro system, but which generally operates in exclusive rights-of-way , in contrast with streetcar systems which operate in shared road traffic with automobiles. Urban sprawl combined with higher fuel prices has caused an increase in popularity of these light rail systems in recent decades. In

2387-415: The urban areas described as the most "sprawling" are the most densely populated. In addition to describing a special form of urbanization , the term also relates to the social and environmental consequences associated with this development. In modern times some suburban areas described as "sprawl" have less detached housing and higher density than the nearby core city . Medieval suburbs suffered from

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2464-532: The 10–35 mile ring. This compares to the year 1998 – 23.3%, 34.2%, and 42.5% in those respective rings. The study shows CBD employment share shrinking, and job growth focused in the suburban and exurban outer metropolitan rings. Sprawl often refers to low- density development . There is no precise definition of "low density", but it might commonly mean Single-family homes on large lots. Such buildings usually have fewer stories and are spaced farther apart, separated by lawns , landscaping , roads or parking lots. In

2541-433: The 1930s they were being driven out of business by the motor car. Although World War II resulted in a brief increase in the importance of these railways, very few lasted beyond the early 1950s. Those that survive today are generally heritage railways . Queensland adopted a narrow gauge of 1,067 mm ( 3 ft 6 in ) in order to make construction of lines lighter and thus cheaper, though this initiated

2618-536: The 1970s, most light railways in Japan had been driven out of business by the motor car. Some of the remaining lines survive in passenger service, and others have been restored as heritage railways . Taiwanese push car railways used handcars on 762mm gauge rails to transport sugarcanes of the Taiwan Sugar Corporation to the mainline railways of the Taiwan Railway Administration or

2695-460: The CBD are losing jobs. These two authors used three geographic rings limited to a 35-mile (56 km) radius around the CBD: 3 miles (4.8 km) or less, 3 to 10 miles (16 km), and 10 to 35 miles (56 km). Kneebone's study showed the following nationwide breakdown for the largest metropolitan areas in 2006: 21.3% of jobs located in the inner ring, 33.6% of jobs in the 3–10 mile ring, and 45.1% in

2772-546: The NRI classification is that it includes rural development, which by definition cannot be considered to be "urban" sprawl. Currently, according to the 2000 Census , approximately 2.6 percent of the U.S. land area is urban. Approximately 0.8 percent of the nation's land is in the 37 urbanized areas with more than 1,000,000 population. In 2002, these 37 urbanized areas supported around 40% of the total American population. Nonetheless, some urban areas like Detroit have expanded geographically even while losing population. But it

2849-465: The San Francisco Bay Area's Greenbelt Alliance , 1000 Friends of Oregon and counterpart organizations nationwide, and other environmental organizations oppose sprawl and support investment in existing communities. NumbersUSA , a national organization advocating immigration reduction , also opposes urban sprawl, and its founder, Roy Beck , specializes in the study of this issue. One of

2926-450: The U.S. and Canada, these often take the form of strip malls , which refer to collections of buildings sharing a common parking lot, usually built on a high-capacity roadway with commercial functions (i.e., a "strip"). Similar developments in the United Kingdom are called Retail Parks. Strip malls consisting mostly of big box stores or category killers are sometimes called "power centers" (U.S.). These developments tend to be low-density;

3003-447: The United States 2–4 houses per acre (5–10 per hectare) might be considered low-density while in the UK 8–12 per acre (or 20–30 per hectare) would still be considered low-density. Because more automobiles are used in the USA, much more land is designated for parking. The impact of low density development in many communities is that developed or "urbanized" land is increasing at a faster rate than

3080-504: The agreement and goodwill of each employee, as the contracts were considered legally watertight. As of 2019, 37 of these contracts were still in active effect. Rheinbahn spokesman Georg Schumacher stated that over 100 such contracts had been issued in total. According to the Munich-based tabloid TZ, several of these contracts are for senior managers who earn in the region of €8,000 per month. This German rail transport related article

3157-457: The average number of residential units per acre in a given area. Others associate it with decentralization (spread of population without a well-defined centre), discontinuity ( leapfrogging development, as defined below ), segregation of uses, and so forth. The term urban sprawl is highly politicized and almost always has negative connotations. It is criticized for causing environmental degradation , intensifying segregation , and undermining

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3234-526: The buildings are single-story and there is ample space for parking and access for delivery vehicles. This character is reflected in the spacious landscaping of the parking lots and walkways and clear signage of the retail establishments. Some strip malls are undergoing a transformation into Lifestyle centers ; entailing investments in common areas and facilities (plazas, cafes) and shifting tenancy from daily goods to recreational shopping. Another prominent form of retail development in areas characterized by sprawl

3311-478: The chance that people will take the bicycle for their commute which would be better for their health. Bicycles are a common mode of transportation for those living in urban centers due to many factors. One major factor many people consider relates to how, when one rides a bike to, say, their workplace, they are exercising as they do so. This multi-tasking is better for one's health than automatic transport. A heavy reliance on automobiles increases traffic throughout

3388-491: The city as well as automobile crashes, pedestrian injuries, and air pollution. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of five and twenty-four and is the leading accident-related cause for all age groups. Residents of more sprawling areas are generally at greater risk of dying in a car crash due to increased exposure to driving. Evidence indicates that pedestrians in sprawling areas are at higher risk than those in denser areas, although

3465-454: The conversion of agricultural land to urban use is not a problem due to the increasing efficiency of agricultural production; they argue that aggregate agricultural production is still more than sufficient to meet global food needs despite the expansion of urban land use. Sprawl leads to increased driving, which in turn leads to vehicle emissions that contribute to air pollution and its attendant negative impacts on human health . In addition,

3542-611: The current custom of requiring a developer to provide subdivision infrastructure as a condition of development. Usually, the developer is required to set aside a certain percentage of the developed land for public use, including roads, parks and schools. In the past, when a local government built all the streets in a given location, the town could expand without interruption and with a coherent circulation system, because it had condemnation power . Private developers generally do not have such power (although they can sometimes find local governments willing to help), and often choose to develop on

3619-703: The current patterns of sprawl are in fact the result of distortions of the free market. Chin cautions that there is a lack of "reliable empirical evidence to support the arguments made either for or against sprawl". She mentions that the lack of a common definition, the need for more quantitative measures "a broader view both in time and space, and greater comparison with alternative urban forms" would be necessary to draw firmer conclusions and conduct more fruitful debates. Arguments opposing urban sprawl include concrete effects such as health and environmental issues as well as abstract consequences including neighborhood vitality. American public policy analyst Randal O'Toole of

3696-492: The desirability of the area adjacent to such structures. Providing services such as water , sewers , road maintenance, and electricity is also more expensive per household in less dense areas, given that sprawl increases lengths of power lines, roads, and pipes, necessitating higher maintenance costs. Residents of low-density areas spend a higher proportion of their income on transportation than residents of high density areas. The unplanned nature of outward urban development

3773-522: The dismantling of infrastructure that occurred in the United States. Despite its sprawl, Metropolitan Los Angeles is the densest major urban area (over 1,000,000 population) in the US, being denser than the New York urban area and the San Francisco urban area. Most of metropolitan Los Angeles is built at more uniform low to moderate density, leading to a much higher overall density for the entire region. This

3850-489: The excavations to the dams that were constructed. Light railways have been used in several wars, especially before the advent of the combustion engine and motor car. These have often connect depots some distance behind the front line with the front lines themselves. Some armies have Divisions of Engineers trained to operate trains. Sometimes they operate a branch line of their own so that they can practise track and bridge building (and demolition) without disturbing trains on

3927-442: The extent of modern sprawl has consumed a large amount of the most productive agricultural land, as well as forest, desert and other wilderness areas. In the United States the seller may avoid tax on profit by using a tax break exempting like-kind exchanges from capital gains tax ; proceeds from the sale are used to purchase agricultural land elsewhere and the transaction is treated as a "swap" or trade of like assets and no tax

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4004-496: The following characteristics: low-density or single-use development, strip development, scattered development, and/or leapfrog development (areas of development interspersed with vacant land). He argued that a better way to identify sprawl was to use indicators rather than characteristics because this was a more flexible and less arbitrary method. He proposed using " accessibility " and "functional open space" as indicators. Ewing's approach has been criticized for assuming that sprawl

4081-426: The lack of a clear agreed upon description of what defines sprawl most definitions often associate the following characteristics with sprawl. This refers to a situation where commercial, residential , institutional and industrial areas are separated from one another. Consequently, large tracts of land are devoted to a single use and are segregated from one another by open space, infrastructure, or other barriers. As

4158-593: The larger area consumed by sprawling suburbs compared to urban neighborhoods, more farmland and wildlife habitats are displaced per resident. As forest cover is cleared and covered with impervious surfaces ( concrete and asphalt ) in the suburbs, rainfall is less effectively absorbed into the groundwater aquifers . This threatens both the quality and quantity of water supplies. Sprawl increases water pollution as rain water picks up gasoline , motor oil , heavy metals , and other pollutants in runoff from parking lots and roads. Gordon & Richardson have argued that

4235-462: The light railways and other small branch lines were being closed. Despite the great public affection for these railways, very few were financially successful. Colonel H.F. Stephens was pivotal in the light railway world, and tried many techniques to make light railways pay, introducing some of the earliest railcars and also experimenting with a rail lorry built out of an old Model T Ford . Nevertheless, most light railways never made much money, and by

4312-515: The like. There is little through traffic with mainline railways so that break-of-gauge is not a problem. The Iron Knob Railway was legally a "tramway", but operated 2,000-ton iron ore trams which were heavier than most railways. Also in Japan , originally, "light railway" refers to a railway built or operated under the Light Railways Act enforced in 1909. The act in Japan also though gives only

4389-407: The loss of protection of city walls, before the advent of industrial warfare . Modern disadvantages and costs include increased travel time, transport costs, pollution, and destruction of the countryside. The revenue for building and maintaining urban infrastructure in these areas are gained mostly through property and sales taxes. Most jobs in the US are now located in suburbs generating much of

4466-549: The main line. Urban sprawl Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment ) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses, dense multi–family apartments, office buildings and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a more or less densely populated city". Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted growth in many urban areas of housing, commercial development, and roads over large expanses of land, with little concern for very dense urban planning . Sometimes

4543-425: The nearness of the workplace to retail and restaurant space that provides cafes and convenience stores with daytime customers is an essential component to the successful balance of urban life. Furthermore, they state that the closeness of the workplace to homes also gives people the option of walking or riding a bicycle to work or school and that without this kind of interaction between the different components of life

4620-418: The need for breaks-of-gauge. There were a significant number of small and isolated mining and timber railway built to a variety of gauges and improvised standards. There are still a large number of sugar cane tramways built to a common 610 mm ( 2 ft ) gauge, and sharing research and development into advanced features such as concrete sleepers, tamping machines, remotely controlled brake vans, and

4697-435: The population is growing. Overall density is often lowered by " leapfrog development". This term refers to the relationship, or lack of it, between subdivisions. Such developments are typically separated by large green belts , i.e. tracts of undeveloped land, resulting in an overall density far lower even than the low density indicated by localized per-acre measurements. This is a 20th and 21st century phenomenon generated by

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4774-560: The processing plants of the Taiwan Sugar Cooperation for further production to turn the sugarcane to fine sugar. Many industrial railways were built to light railway standards. These may be of light and small construction, although the wagons carrying molten-steel in a steelworks can be several hundred tonnes in weight. The Panama Canal construction used a heavy network of 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ) temporary railways in its construction to move vast quantities of soil from

4851-627: The reduced physical activity implied by increased automobile use has negative health consequences. Sprawl significantly predicts chronic medical conditions and health-related quality of life, but not mental health disorders. The American Journal of Public Health and the American Journal of Health Promotion, have both stated that there is a significant connection between sprawl, obesity , and hypertension . Loud vehicles can cause stress, prevent sleep, and minimize social interactions in public for people living in cities (especially homeless people). In

4928-652: The relationship is less clear than for drivers and passengers in vehicles. Research covered in the Journal of Economic Issues and State and Local Government Review shows a link between sprawl and emergency medical services response and fire department response delays. Living in larger, more spread out spaces generally makes public services more expensive. Since car usage becomes endemic and public transport often becomes significantly more expensive, city planners are forced to build highway and parking infrastructure , which in turn decreases taxable land and revenue, and decreases

5005-498: The revenue, although a lack of growth will require higher tax rates. In Europe , the term peri-urbanisation is often used to denote similar dynamics and phenomena, but the term urban sprawl is currently being used by the European Environment Agency . There is widespread disagreement about what constitutes sprawl and how to quantify it. For example, some commentators measure sprawl by residential density , using

5082-415: The same time, the urban cores of these and nearly all other major cities in the United States , Western Europe , and Japan that did not annex new territory experienced the related phenomena of falling household size and, particularly in the U.S., " white flight ", sustaining population losses. This trend has slowed somewhat in recent years, as more people have regained an interest in urban living. Due to

5159-628: The shopping malls act as a surrogate for the city centre . Some downtowns have responded to this challenge by building shopping centres of their own. Fast food chains are often built early in areas with low property values where the population is expected to boom and where large traffic is predicted, and set a precedent for future development. Eric Schlosser , in his book Fast Food Nation , argues that fast food chains accelerate suburban sprawl and help set its tone with their expansive parking lots, flashy signs, and plastic architecture (65). Duany Plater Zyberk & Company believe that this reinforces

5236-573: The supply of housing in desirable areas, and thus, it also decreases housing prices in those areas (by the logic of supply and demand ). Urban sprawl may be partly responsible for the decline in social capital in the United States. Compact neighborhoods can foster casual social interactions among neighbors, while sprawl creates barriers. Sprawl tends to replace public spaces with private spaces such as fenced-in backyards. Critics of sprawl maintain that sprawl erodes quality of life . Duany and Plater-Zyberk believe that in traditional neighborhoods

5313-430: The term "light railway" varies by geography and context. In countries where a single standard gauge is dominant, the term light railway does not imply a narrow gauge railway. Most narrow gauge railways operate as light railways, but not all light railways need be narrow gauge. After Spooner 's development of steam haulage for narrow gauge railways, the prevailing view was that the gauge should be tailored according to

5390-411: The tracts that happen to be for sale at the time they want to build, rather than pay extra or wait for a more appropriate location. Some research argues that religious ideas about how humans should live (and die) promote low-density development and may contribute to urban sprawl. Land for sprawl is often taken from fertile agricultural lands , which are often located immediately surrounding cities;

5467-461: The traffic: "The nearer the machine is apportioned to the work it has to do the cheaper will that work be done." From the 1890s, it was recognised that cost savings could also be made in the construction and operation of a standard gauge railway: "light axle-loads and low speeds, not gauge, are the first condition of cheap construction and economical working. Gauge is quite a secondary factor." Break of gauge now became an important factor, and there

5544-603: The urban pattern quickly falls apart. James Howard Kunstler has argued that poor aesthetics in suburban environments make them "places not worth caring about", and that they lack a sense of history and identity. Urban sprawl has class and racial implications in many parts of the world; the relative homogeneity of many sprawl developments may reinforce class and racial divides through residential segregation . Numerous studies link increased population density with increased aggression. Some people believe that increased population density encourages crime and anti-social behavior. It

5621-419: The vitality of existing urban areas, and is attacked on aesthetic grounds. The pejorative meaning of the term means that few openly support urban sprawl as such. The term has become a rallying cry for managing urban growth. The term urban sprawl was often used in the letters between Lewis Mumford and Frederic J. Osborn, firstly by Osborn in his 1941 letter to Mumford and later by Mumford, generally condemning

5698-507: The waste of agricultural land and landscape due to suburban expansions. The term was used in an article in The Times in 1955 as a negative comment on the state of London 's outskirts. Definitions of sprawl vary; researchers in the field acknowledge that the term lacks precision. Batty et al. defined sprawl as "uncoordinated growth: the expansion of community without concern for its consequences, in short, unplanned, incremental urban growth which

5775-603: The years following World War II, when vehicle ownership was becoming widespread, public health officials recommended the health benefits of suburbs due to soot and industrial fumes in the city center. However, air in modern suburbs is not necessarily cleaner than air in urban neighborhoods. In fact, the most polluted air is on crowded highways, where people in suburbs tend to spend more time. On average, suburban residents generate more per capita pollution and carbon emissions than their urban counterparts because of their increased driving, as well as larger homes. Sprawl also reduces

5852-410: Was much concern over whether this would become an additional cost for the transshipment of goods, or whether this was over-emphasised compared to the amount of warehousing and handling needed anyway. The Irish railway system in particular became a good example of a broad gauge main line system with many independent narrow gauge , 3 ft ( 914 mm ), light railway feeder branch lines . In

5929-491: Was not just urbanized areas in the U.S. that lost population and sprawled substantially. According to data in "Cities and Automobile Dependence" by Kenworthy and Laube (1999), urbanized area population losses occurred while there was an expansion of sprawl between 1970 and 1990 in Amsterdam , Netherlands; Brussels , Belgium; Copenhagen , Denmark; Frankfurt , Hamburg and Munich , Germany; and Zürich , Switzerland, albeit without

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