Urban sprawl is used to
describe everything bad about urban growth today (Peiser, 2001). According to
Peiser, sprawl is a world-wide phenomenon, leading to many ills within and
surrounding the city. Controlling urban sprawl may turn this unwanted
development into something good, but, urban development in Trinidad’s capital
city of Port-of-Spain has not capitalised on this occurrence. One major impact
of urban sprawl is the increased traffic to get into the city. As communities
developed outside of the city, the population spread outwards. With increased
travelling population, huge influxes of people need to move into the city and
out of it during the work hours of the day. This has led to hours of traffic to
get in and out of the city.
Have a look at this
article (http://www.trinidadexpress.com/letters/Simply_too_many_cars_on_the_nation_s_roads-170861001.html)
written by the Trinidad Newsday, which blames the frequent traffic pile-ups on
the increased number of vehicles on our nation’s roadways.
Although this
inefficiency can be associated with poor traffic planning and management, urban
sprawl is also an influencing factor. Our inefficient use of urban sprawl and
poor traffic management has led to our traffic congestion we face today.
Reference:
Peiser, Richard. 2001. Decomposing Urban Sprawl. The Town Planning Review, Vol. 72, No. 3
pp. 275-298
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