What is “sprawl” and doesn it contribute to air pollution and development of our “disappearing” rural and wild lands?
“Sprawl” is a perjorative term for suburban growth. The fact is that only about 5 percent of the nation’s urban land is developed, while 75 percent of the population lives on only 3.5 percent of the land. Also, more than 75 precent of states have more than 90 percent of their land in rural uses. More than five times as much land is set aside in national parks, wilderness areas, federal forests and federal grazing lands than has been developed for housing and industry. As far as pollution is concerned, the number of vehicle miles traveled increases with population density, thus city drivers, not suburban ones, cause most of the pollution.
