Final answer:
Suburban sprawl describes the expansion of residential and commercial developments into rural areas at city edges, often leading to traffic, environmental impacts, and the spread of homogenized neighborhoods. It is fueled by developers and challenged by New Urbanism, a movement promoting sustainable, mixed-use communities.
Step-by-step explanation:
Suburban sprawl (also known as urban sprawl) refers to the spread of suburban or exurban development over rural land at the outskirts of cities. This phenomenon emerged as a result of the desire for more space and the availability of transportation options allowing for commutes to urban job centers. Suburban sprawl has led to a variety of effects on society and the environment, including increased traffic congestion, lengthier commuting times, the disappearance of bucolic landscapes, and a rise in pollution due to greater natural resource consumption, particularly petroleum.
Land developers, driven by economic interests and political connections, play a pivotal role in suburban expansion, which often occurs without proper planning, leading to inefficient developments known as checkerboard development. This unchecked growth imposes hidden costs on taxpayers, who finance the necessary extension of infrastructure and services, thereby exacerbating inequalities between urban core areas and sprawling suburbs.
In response to these challenges, concepts like New Urbanism have arisen, advocating for the creation of mixed-use, transit-oriented developments that aim to revitalize urban cores and older suburbs. Such developments seek to emulate the integrated living, working, and recreational spaces of pre-automobile cities, contrasting with the homogeneity and automobile-dependence of conventional suburbs.