Is it the end of the road for the cul-de-sac? Perhaps. From a city and regional planning perspective, the timeworn layouts might become a distant memory as a few governments are just saying no. From Sarah Goodyear:

In our region, cul-de-sacs are the model for Rural Cluster Developments where open space is configured to a cement island, complicit in expanding Spokane County’s Urban Growth Area. As Kitty Klitzke from Futurewise pointed out last fall, our UGA already “covers over 89 square miles, this is over 2.5 times larger than the City of Paris, France. And Paris we ain’t. Their population, at 2.2 million is almost 5 times the population of Spokane County.”

How do we efficiently accommodate the county’s projected population growth? The fact is 25% of growth in the last decade happened outside our cities and towns, resulting in poor infrastructure investments and sprawl. It’s crucial to recognize the higher costs to taxpayers and that other cities are saying enough is enough; the cul-de-sac is a dead end. Coincidentally, the literal translation of cul-de-sac is “bottom of the bag” and there’s an urgency to find our way out as it gets more crowded and costly.

Source: Down to Earth

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