Most and Least Sprawliest cities list

[DougStark]

[quote=petroglyphin;34814553]Phoenix is super sprawled out. Im surprised its not mentioned.[/quote

Agree. Phoenix metro has massive sprawl, but so far it seems to be working. People here like single family homes, yards, pools, etc. But over the years, as population grows, the freeways will become grid-lock like LA's.

[DougStark]

Originally Posted by Cacao

Los Angeles is old school sprawl. It has filled in considerably over the years, and as we can see is not nearly as low density as several other areas.

You're right. LA is old school sprawl. Phoenix and Atlanta/Houston are new school sprawl.

[bawac34618]

I think OKC is as bad as it gets for its size. Phoenix is up there close with it or possibly even worse. Does Phoenix even have any dense walkable areas at all?

The worst cities are cities that sprawl but have a low density/abandoned downtown. Cities like Chicago sprawl, but they still have a very urban, dense core.

I would say current Detroit is probably pretty bad. I know they are seeing a renaissance of sorts in their urban core but the metro area is still heavily lopsided towards its suburbs with vast swaths of the city still in decay.

[mjlo]

Originally Posted by bawac34618

I think OKC is as bad as it gets for its size. Phoenix is up there close with it or possibly even worse. Does Phoenix even have any dense walkable areas at all?

Of course it does. Phoenix is a sprawl anomaly as it's urban area is more dense than some major Northeastern cities urban areas. The difference being that it's very uniform density and the suburbs hover around 3k ppsm like the core city does. When you fly in there is a very distinct line where development starts, there aren't pockets of exurban nodes and wilderness like you see in other cities. So sprawled yes, but much more uniform in it's development that you would otherwise get the impression of. Within that you do find denser walkable neighborhoods. Specifically the neighborhoods directly abutting the core, and suburban nodes like downtown Tempe, to a lesser extent downtown Scottsdale, and even smaller scale downtown Mesa is showing some signs of walkability as well.