Alternative development styles Urban sprawl

the term smart growth has been particularly used in north america. terms compact city or urban intensification used describe similar concepts in europe , particularly uk has influenced government policy , planning practice in recent years.

the state of oregon enacted law in 1973 limiting area urban areas occupy, through urban growth boundaries. result, portland, state s largest urban area, has become leader in smart growth policies seek make urban areas more compact (they called urban consolidation policies). after creation of boundary, population density of urbanized area increased (from 1,135 in 1970 1,290 per km² in 2000). while growth boundary has not been tight enough vastly increase density, consensus growth boundaries have protected great amounts of wild areas , farmland around metro area.

many parts of san francisco bay area have adopted urban growth boundaries; 25 of cities , 5 of counties have urban growth boundaries. many of these adopted support , advocacy of greenbelt alliance, non-profit land conservation , urban planning organization.

in other areas, design principles of district regionalism , new urbanism have been employed combat urban sprawl. concept of circular flow land use management has been developed in europe reduce land take urban sprawl through promoting inner-city , brownfield development.

while cities such los angeles known sprawling suburbs, policies , public opinion changing. transit-oriented development, in higher-density mixed-use areas permitted or encouraged near transit stops encouraging more compact development in areas-particularly light , heavy rail transit systems.

bicycles preferred means of travel in many countries. also, bicycles permitted in public transit. businesses in areas of towns bicycle use high thriving. bicycles , transit contributing in 2 important ways toward success of businesses:

first, on average people living closest these business districts have more money spend locally because don t spend on cars.
second, because these people rely more on bicycling, walking , transit on driving, tend focus more of commerce on locally owned neighborhood businesses convenient them reach.

walkability measure of how friendly area walking. walkability has many health, environmental, , economic benefits. however, evaluating walkability challenging because requires consideration of many subjective factors. factors influencing walkability include presence or absence , quality of footpaths, sidewalks or other pedestrian right-of-ways, traffic , road conditions, land use patterns, building accessibility, , safety, among others. walkability important concept in sustainable urban design.