ARCH 201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Urban Sprawl, White Flight
Document Summary
Americans invented suburban sprawl-- we invented it and need to do something about it. Many urban districts are still highly segregated racially and economically. One of primary motivating factors behind suburbanization was fleeing to a monoculture housing district. Too much of a good thing = placeless sprawl. Ie florida ghost cities that are uninhabited or unbuilt. Large amount of signs that are competing for your attention. Evolution of street network from gridiron to cul-de-sac. Roads are getting wider and wider, and developers are making more money off that. Cul-de-sacs are parasites in the sense that they"re simply adding cars to the network, but not contributing to overall capacity of road network. Fused grid has a 10% increase in pedestrian travel, corresponds to 23% decrease in car travel. Suburban leads to larger, less dense intersections leading to decreased safety for drivers and pedestrians alike. Single use zoning creates large blocks of differentiated/single area districts in towns.
