Urban sprawl areas are large and complicated. They have existed for many years and occupy approximately two million acres of open space in the United States each year. The sprawl requires a car for even the smallest tasks and is not environmentally friendly. Now there is a new system starting to emerge and that is the new urbanism or smart growth. New urbanism is a smaller system that saves more open space, reduces car dependency, and reduces pollution. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The first way an urban sprawl area has a negative effect is the highway system. Highways are always congested with traffic. They use road plans that funnel cars onto a few major roads, which leads to congestion in that area with traffic and pollution. It also isolates commercial and residential areas, which results in one car being used for every single activity. Roads are often widened to try to ease congestion, but this only draws more drivers into the area and causes even more congestion. Statistics show that a family with two cars will make about ten car trips a day and, in a year, a person who has to travel about an hour to and from work in each direction will spend about twelve work weeks traveling to and from come back from work. New Urbanism brings mass transportation into the picture. Mass transit provides transportation by bus, subway, or even walking to and from a person's destination. It requires fewer car trips, shorter commutes and fewer highways. Ultimately, it will also reduce total pollution because there are fewer cars driving on the roads. The second area that New Urbanism improves is parking. Parking in a sprawling urban area is usually a large lot in front of the business. This causes the business to be pushed further away from the sidewalk. Residential parking is usually a driveway that connects to the street. This causes the house to move away from the street, which could lead to less use of the yard. Another parking situation is parallel parking. It is not recommended in an urban sprawl area as it can be dangerous and cause congestion when trying to park. New Urbanism offers parking in areas such as along sidewalks, behind stores or even in garages. Parking in these areas allows the store to be right along the curb, which can also allow walking to the store as a safe commute. Street parking also allows for safer walking, as it requires much less walking from the person's car to the store. Parking in a garage in a residential sense allows the house to be close to the street, creating a sense of comfort for those walking. New Urbanism also helps with the distance from one destination to another. In an Urban Sprawl area, a person may have to walk several kilometers before reaching one store to another, but in New Urbanism, it allows stores to be placed directly next to each other allowing a person to exit a store and go right. in the next. This can go back to parking behind a store and being able to drive from store to store without the person ever having to move their car. Another improvement of New Urbanism is the street plan. In an area of ​​urban sprawl the street plan can be quite complicated and cause you to lose your sense of direction. This can be seen in many subdivisions, where it allows for a very quiet subdivision due to the main roads.