The recovery of the USA, the real one, not the fake one from financial engineering (zero interest rates, QE, Goldman Sacks and its ilk) rests mostly on fracking (and a low $/Euro ratio). Break the ground, get gas and oil.
Urban sprawl exposes the USA in case the fracking gets fracked (from a combination of ecological reasons and bad ROI). Or in case the CO2 crisis becomes so bad, even the deluded government of the USA submits to the evidence.
In Europe, it's different. Europeans have known for at least 1,000 years, that urban sprawl was bad: it encroached on arable land, and precious forests, increased the cost of transportation. Not so in North America. why? Because, modulo exterminating the natives, there was always a lot of land to misuse.
Want to do something about sprawl? First raise tax base of cities, punish sprawling (say by putting a significant carbon tax/gas tax). Otherwise? Danger, long term: one cannot de-sprawl overnight...
More complete version: http://patriceayme.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/uniformly-sprawling-atrocity/
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