NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: October 17, 2002

"Sprawl Index" Ranks Portland Area
Nation's 8th Least Sprawling

New Report Links Sprawl to Traffic Deaths, Pollution

The Portland region ranks as the nation's eighth least sprawling metropolitan area, according to a new national study. The report, Measuring Sprawl and Its Impact, uses a sophisticated new sprawl measure created by researchers at Rutgers and Cornell Universities.

The sprawl scores are based on dozens of statistics from national databases and represent the first comprehensive, academically rigorous ranking of sprawl in the United States. The full report, as well as a technical research paper and metropolitan area fact sheets, was released by the national group Smart Growth America and can be found at www.smartgrowthamerica.org

Among the areas ranked as less-sprawling than Portland, most are older east-coast cities that developed before the automobile (e.g., New York, Boston, Providence) or cities with significant geographic barriers to sprawl (e.g., Honolulu, San Francisco).

The researchers ranked 83 metropolitan areas according to a detailed "sprawl index" based on four critical determinants of sprawl, then correlated these rankings to a set of quality-of-life outcomes related to transportation. The study shows that people who live in more sprawling places own more cars, drive more, face a greater risk of dying in a traffic crash, and breathe more polluted air than people in less sprawling areas. (Future reports will examine sprawl's impacts on public health, land consumption, economic development, and other quality of life measures.)

"We've known for years that sprawling development hurts our quality of life, but this report provides the hard data to back that up," said Randy Tucker of 1000 Friends of Oregon. "This is more evidence that we need to avoid sprawling as our region grows."

Among the report's findings:

• The daily distance driven per person is over ten miles more in the most sprawling places than in the least sprawling, adding up to 40 more miles of travel each day for a family of four.
• The ten most sprawling places average over 50% more traffic deaths per capita than the least sprawling (36 for every 100,000 people vs. 23).
• Ozone pollution levels are as much as 41 parts per billion higher in the most sprawling areas, which can mean the difference between meeting and violating federal health standards.

The report also found that higher levels of sprawl had no independent impact on traffic delay or travel times, refuting the idea sprawl helps ease congestion. "Spread-out development doesn't cure congestion-it just means you have fewer choices that would allow you to avoid being stuck in traffic," said Tucker. Referring to the data on congestion and traffic fatalities, he continued, "This report shows that you can't cure traffic with sprawl, but you can die trying."

The new index issues five sprawl "scores" for each metropolitan area. These scores compare each area's level of sprawl to other metropolitan areas, looking at residential density, the mix of homes and other land uses, the strength of town centers, and the accessibility of the street network, as well as an overall ranking. Portland received an above-average score of 126.1 on the overall ranking and was one of only a handful of cities to receive above-average scores on each of the four indicators. (Areas were scored against an average of 100, with higher scores indicating less sprawl.)

Interestingly, while debate in the region has recently increased over residential density, Portland ranked as only minimally more dense than average (101.3) and only slightly better than average in terms of its mixture of uses (102.3), while it scored much higher in terms of street connectivity (128) and strong town centers (121.8). Seattle, which ranked 30 places below Portland overall, had a higher density score (103.6)

The results of the study show that if the Portland region built more sprawl-style development and moved just 25-points down on the sprawl index, drivers could be expected to travel over 3 million more miles in the region each day, adding to air pollution and traffic jams.

Tucker pointed out that this index only compares U.S. cities to each other, not to the better-planned cities of Canada and Europe. "When you grade U.S. cities on a curve, Portland is near the head of the class," he said. "But even the least sprawling American cities are still just the 'valedictorians of the remedial class.'"

For more information, contact Randy Tucker at 1000 Friends of Oregon.

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