By its nature, sprawl increases our reliance on cars. The grocery store is far from home, which is far from work, which is far from our children's school. This increased need to drive everywhere, and the resulting traffic jams, releases more pollution into the environment, making the clean air people were seeking when they moved away from the city harder to find. Additionally, the very act of building new housing developments and adjoining strip malls eats up open land or farmland. In some cases, wetlands, which naturally filter pollution and provide habitat, are plowed over or floodplains are built on.
Cities suffer the effects of sprawl as well.
As people move farther out, taxpayer money is spent on building new roads, and water and sewer lines instead of maintaining or repairing existing city facilities. Schools in the city sit half empty while schools in the growing suburbs are overflowing. Some believe that we must move quickly to stop sprawl in its tracks. And some cities have tried to do this by creating green spaces and prohibiting development around the city and immediate suburbs. Advocates of this type of plan note that it concentrates investment in the city, making it a more desirable place to live.