Innovative trans-boundary planning is going to be necessary to make enoromous regional urban developments work.
"More than 200 million people, two-thirds the U.S. population, already live in 10 megapolitan regions six east of the Mississippi, four west. And the "megas" are gaining population more rapidly than the United States as a whole likely to add 85 million more people and a gargantuan $33 trillion in construction spending by 2040, reports Robert Lang of Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute.
"Most massive of these massive population agglomerations now 50 million people strong is the Northeast Corridor from New England to Northern Virginia, the focus of geographer Jean Gottman's seminal 1961 book "Megalopolis." But the Midwest mega (Pittsburgh-Detroit-Chicago) has 40 million people, the Southland (Los Angeles to Las Vegas) 22 million, and the Piedmont (Charlotte-Atlanta) 19 million. The six "smallest" megas are massive enough on their own: the I-35 corridor (San Antonio-Dallas-Kansas City), 15 million people; the Florida Peninsula (Tampa-Orlando-Miami), 14 million; the Gulf Coast (New Orleans-Houston) and NorCal (San Francisco and Central Valley), 12 million each; Cascadia (Seattle-Portland), 7 million; and the Valley of the Sun (Phoenix), 5 million.
"All will have passed the 10-million mark by 2040. But how will the projected growth be accommodated in metro regions already choking on highway congestion and approaching build-out under today's low-density patterns?"
Thanks to Michael Dudley
FULL STORY: The "megalopolis" century

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