New study finds reduction in sprawl

Mary Bruno

Mary Bruno Jun 28, 2025

Feb 6, 2018

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                <h1>New study finds reduction in sprawl</h1>
                <h2><p>Sprawl peaked around 1990, but was down 9 percent by 2012, according to a study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This is potentially good news for rural and semi-rural areas which have been gobbled up by the relentless march of development. The Associated Press reports</p></h2>
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               <p>By <a href="/author/mary-bruno-crosscut-com/">Mary Bruno</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Feb 6, 2018</time></p>
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            <p>Sprawl peaked around 1990, but was down 9 percent by 2012, according to a study in the journal <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>. This is potentially good news for rural and semi-rural areas which have been gobbled up by the relentless march of development. The <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_URBAN_SPRAWL?SITE=AP&wpmm=1&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&wpisrc=nl_wonk&ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">Associated Press reports</a> that study author Christopher Barrington-Leigh from Montreal's McGill University looked at a century of street construction in U.S. metro areas and found that new urban streets are more densely packed.</p><p>The five best sprawl-controlling counties? Travis County, Texas; Mecklenburg County, North Carolina; Alachua County, Florida; Iredell County, North Carolina; and Franklin County, Ohio. "It shows there is hope," said Barrington-Leigh, who notes that sprawl encourages driving which pumps more greenhouse gases into the atmo. "We would like to slam the breaks on bad development."</p>
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Sprawl peaked around 1990, but was down 9 percent by 2012, according to a study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This is potentially good news for rural and semi-rural areas which have been gobbled up by the relentless march of development. The Associated Press reports that study author Christopher Barrington-Leigh from Montreal's McGill University looked at a century of street construction in U.S. metro areas and found that new urban streets are more densely packed.

The five best sprawl-controlling counties? Travis County, Texas; Mecklenburg County, North Carolina; Alachua County, Florida; Iredell County, North Carolina; and Franklin County, Ohio. "It shows there is hope," said Barrington-Leigh, who notes that sprawl encourages driving which pumps more greenhouse gases into the atmo. "We would like to slam the breaks on bad development."

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By Mary Bruno

Mary was Crosscut's Editor-in-Chief and Interim Publisher. In more than 25 years as a journalist, she has worked as a writer, editor and editorial director for a variety of print and web publications,