Sprawl hurts us all by creating more dangerous traffic and congestion on neighborhood streets. The average Cincinnati driver, as of 1997, sits 31 hours per year stuck in gridlock. Scattered sprawl gives people no choice but to drive more to get from home to work. Smart growth means focusing the development where people have transportation choices, such as commuter trains and bus service. Sprawl hurts us all by crowding our schools.
New sprawl creates crowded schools in the suburbs, and empty, crumbing schools in center cities.
One reason for the financial troubles of our Cincinnati Public Schools is the dwindling tax base of the city due to sprawl. In population surge in our outlying areas has also caused chronic school overcrowding. In the Lakota School district in Butler County, for example, taxpayers were forced to pay for 10 new schools in the 1990s, and yet they still need two more. Sprawl creates more air and water pollution. Largely due to the worsening traffic congestion on Cincinnati roads and highways, and the lack of efficient mass transit, the air quality in Cincinnati has become a major health problem.