Define urban sprawl and identify three drivers.

• A. Low-density, auto-dependent, leapfrogging expansion beyond the urban core; drivers include zoning laws favoring single-use, highway construction, and mortgage/financing encouraging single-family homes.
• B. High-density redevelopment around transit; drivers include environmental policies.
• C. Centralization of economic activity in CBD as driver.
• D. Growth restricted by environmental regulations.

Answer: (A)

Urban sprawl is the spread of development in low-density, car-dependent patterns that push outward beyond the urban core. It usually features housing on large lots, separated uses (residential, commercial, and industrial kept apart), and limited access to public transit, so driving becomes the main way people get around. Three drivers commonly linked to this pattern are policies and zoning that favor single-use, low-density residential development; the expansion of highways and roads that makes suburbs easily reachable and encourages people to live farther from where they work; and financing systems that make single-family home ownership affordable and attractive, such as favorable mortgage terms and subsidies that sustain demand for new suburban housing.

Other options describe development that is the opposite of sprawl or that would slow outward growth: high-density redevelopment around transit points to compact, walkable growth; centralization of economic activity in the central business district signals inward growth rather than outward spread; and growth restricted by environmental regulations tends to curb expansion rather than drive it outward.