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The Entrenchment of Urban Dispersion: Residential Preferences and Location Patterns in the Dispersed City

Author

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  • Pierre Filion

    (School of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada, pfiliore@fes.uwalerloo.ca+)

  • Trudi Bunting

    (Department of Geography, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada, tbunting@fes.uwaterloo.ca)

  • Keith Warriner

    (Department of Sociology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada, wnrr@uwaterloo.ca)

Abstract

The paper portrays three aspects of urban dispersion: urban structure, residents' location and land-use preferences, and social ecology. To explain the dynamic inherent in this form of urbanisation, it suggests an explanatory model concentrating on shifts in the respective importance of space, place and proximity associated with the passage from traditional monocentric to dispersed urban form. The paper draws its empirical substance from the Kitchener Census Metropolitan Area, one of the most dispersed metropolitan regions in Canada. The Kitchener case study highlights the defining characteristics of a dispersed urban structure: high automobile dependence, a scattering of origins and destinations, and a resulting absence of pronounced accessibility gradients. The paper also reports the results of a survey which indicates a harmonisation of residents' preferences with the main features of dispersion. The case study ends by mapping the residential location patterns of two groups with a disproportionate influence on new urban development: high income households and families with children. Their concentric distribution is consistent with survey results. In the light of the prevailing transport-land-use relation and of residents' location choices and expressed preferences, the paper foresees a further entrenchment of the dispersed urban structure. The paper closes by explaining the limited success of most intensification policies and by exploring the possibility of injecting more diversity into the dispersed landscape in order to accommodate a growing variety of lifestyles.

Suggested Citation

  • Pierre Filion & Trudi Bunting & Keith Warriner, 1999. "The Entrenchment of Urban Dispersion: Residential Preferences and Location Patterns in the Dispersed City," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 36(8), pages 1317-1347, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:36:y:1999:i:8:p:1317-1347
    DOI: 10.1080/0042098993015
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Morrow-Jones, Hazel A. & Kim, Moon Jeong, 2009. "Determinants of Residential Location Decisions among the Pre-Elderly in Central Ohio," The Journal of Transport and Land Use, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, vol. 2(1), pages 47-64.
    2. Pierre Filion, 2015. "Suburban Inertia: The Entrenchment of Dispersed Suburbanism," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(3), pages 633-640, May.
    3. García-Palomares, Juan Carlos, 2010. "Urban sprawl and travel to work: the case of the metropolitan area of Madrid," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 197-213.
    4. Yi, Hoonchong & Güneralp, Burak & Filippi, Anthony M. & Kreuter, Urs P. & Güneralp, İnci, 2017. "Impacts of Land Change on Ecosystem Services in the San Antonio River Basin, Texas, from 1984 to 2010," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 125-135.
    5. Wolday, Fitwi & Cao, Jason & Næss, Petter, 2018. "Examining factors that keep residents with high transit preference away from transit-rich zones and associated behavior outcomes," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 224-234.
    6. Cao, Xinyu (Jason), 2015. "Heterogeneous effects of neighborhood type on commute mode choice: An exploration of residential dissonance in the Twin Cities," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 188-196.

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