Urban Sprawl in Western Europe and the United States

Urban sprawl is one of the key planning issues today. This book compares Western Europe and the USA focusing on anti-sprawl policies. The USA is known for its settlement patterns that emphasize low-density suburban development and extreme automobile dependence whereas European countries emphasize higher densities pro-transit policies and more compact urban growth. Yet on closer inspection the differences are not as wide as first appears. A key feature of the book is the attention given to France; its experience is little known in the English-speaking world. The book concludes that both continents can offer each other useful insights and perhaps policy guidance.