Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Culture The Atlantic Asks: Can Nashville Shake Its Sprawling Past?
Posted by Jack Silverman on Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 1:58 PM
I knew Nashville was one sprawlin' SOB, but I had no clue quite how bad we were in the grand scheme. Benfield cites a 2001 USA Today study claiming that of all metropolitan areas population 1 million and up, Nashville is No. 1 in terms of sprawl. Worse than Atlanta, Los Angeles, everywhere. Crazy.
Furthermore, a 2011 study ranked Nashville No. 1 in a 2011 report for the most hours spent in rush hour traffic per person.
Benfield has mostly positive things to say for the the Nashville MPO's plan, which includes improving existing roadways before building new ones, investing in walkable communities, shifting investment strategy more toward transportation diversity and less toward road building, and more:
I was first exposed to the new, 25-year Nashville region transportation plan as a jury member asked to review candidates for a national smart growth award. I was impressed. I am now teaching a law school seminar on sustainable communities and decided to take a closer look to see whether the region's new vision might be an appropriate case study for our class. I’m still impressed. ...For a transportation plan, and a guiding philosophy for allocating transportation investment, that’s pretty darn good in a place that has been called one of the most sprawling and congested (and, in some reports, the most sprawling and congested metro area) in the country. The proof, as always, will be in the actual decisions made on the ground. But this is fantastic guidance for planners and citizens alike to measure those decisions against.
Read the whole story here.
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Comments (9)
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Does anyone know of a good reference for a modern analysis of why sprawl is bad?
Obviously, it's bad if everyone in metro-davidson county is using cars to get downtown, but I wonder how/if, as the economy in general (in the US) shifts from manufacturing/industry/etc to more distributed service/information industries, the distribution of job centers is actually more centralized. It seems natural that it would. It also seems reasonable to conclude that sprawl isn't necessarily a bad thing in this context -- and could actually be an asset. Building up and increasing density isn't always a cost-effective strategy either.
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Sometimes I wonder if the world's so small, that we can never get away from the sprawl...
You know, dead shopping malls, and such.
Sprawl is not the same as population density, which is what the 11 year old USA Today "study" uses to define sprawl. By this measure, Nashville is penalized for having the Warner Parks, Radnor Lake and other green spaces. Sure there is less centralization in Nashville than some cities. There are a lot more trees in Nashville too.
but, but, "sprawl is evil!" Everybody knows that!
Do you know why there's sprawl?
because a large segment of the population prefer to live in houses on larger lots with more grass & trees. The automobile makes this possible.
But, since we KNOW that automobiles are bad things, we must figure out a way to convince/compel all those stupid people to live in small lot/high density communities and force them to commute via bus & train (anything but an automobile).
the private automobile confers far too much autonomy and individual freedom.
And we can't have that... now can we?
Right on @bms, that USA Today "study" ain't worth squat. One of my profs at the dearly departed UT Planning School used to say that, once, the West End in London was derided as sprawl. Ineffeicient & wasteful development patters (e.g. culs-de-sac, single-loaded alleys, lack of interconnectivity) are one thing to rightly call-out, but just reflexively hating on the extension of urban/suburban/exurban development is another.
To each there own I guess.. Personally I like having everything I need within walking distance. My GF and I share a car, she commutes and I generally use public transport or walk. It's amazing how you come to know a city by just walking around. You find yourself in some amazing places you otherwise would have just driven by. But I can also see why some people would prefer a little more seclusion, or their own land.
