Sunday’s issue of the Los Angeles Times featured an opinion piece by Robert Bruegmann. “Sprawl is not the worst thing that ever happened to the nation’s cities. In fact, by many measures, it’s been beneficial,” writes Bruegmann.
But isn’t sprawl to blame for gridlock on the LA freeways? No, says Bruegmann, the problem is a lagging infrastucture: “Population and density have increased without a corresponding development in the highway network. The L.A. region, once at the forefront of freeway development, now falls toward the bottom of the list of cities in the number of freeway lane miles per capita.” The divisive debate over sprawl has “weaken[ed] the consensus for funding for all kinds of transportation—public and private, highway and rail.” LA needs to “put aside for a while the old and not-terribly-helpful battles over sprawl.”
See also our excerpt from the book.