Is it the end of the road for the cul-de-sac? Perhaps. From a city and regional planning perspective, the timeworn layouts might become a distant memory as a few governments are just saying no. From Sarah Goodyear:

Early last year, the state of Virginia became the first state to severely limit cul-de-sacs from future development. Similar actions have been taken in Portland, Oregon, Austin, Texas, and Charlotte, North Carolina.

What they are beginning to realize is that the cul-de-sac street grid uses land inefficiently, discourages walking and biking, and causes an almost complete dependence on driving, with attendant pollution and energy use. Furthermore, town officials are beginning to realize that unconnected streets cost more money to provide services to and force traffic onto increasingly crowded arterial roads, which then, in many cases, need to be widened (more tax money).

Yes, there are indeed benefits to cul-de-sacs. Less through traffic makes it quieter and, some argue, safer for kids for going outside. However the downsides are evident: Residents end up paying for the inefficient road networks they create. Direct connections are cut-off and travel is required for longer distances to a physically nearby location. The lack of connectivity causes more congestion—80 percent worse—because the main roads and arterials get backed up and in Charlotte a study found an area with heavy cul-de-sacs needed more fire stations to be built, stretching municipality services.

 

In our region, cul-de-sacs are the model for Rural Cluster Developments where open space is configured to a cement island, complicit in expanding Spokane County’s Urban Growth Area. As Kitty Klitzke from Futurewise pointed out last fall, our UGA already “covers over 89 square miles, this is over 2.5 times larger than the City of Paris, France. And Paris we ain't. Their population, at 2.2 million is almost 5 times the population of Spokane County.”

How do we efficiently accommodate the county’s projected population growth? The fact is 25% of growth in the last decade happened outside our cities and towns, resulting in poor infrastructure investments and sprawl. It's crucial to recognize the higher costs to taxpayers and that other cities are saying enough is enough; the cul-de-sac is a dead end. Coincidentally, the literal translation of cul-de-sac is “bottom of the bag” and there’s an urgency to find our way out as it gets more crowded and costly.

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