Suburban street design has driven emissions since WWII, study suggests

https://phys.org/news/2026-06-suburban-street-driven-emissions-wwii.html

Wow. What we’ve always thought, now verified and quantified: 

“‘…Suburbanization as a whole adds 0.26 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per person per year, and “‘… about 38%, of the environmental costs of suburbs.””

“The paper shows that a substantial share of the costs we attribute to ‘sprawl’ actually stem from street design…”‘ “Right now, the conversation is almost entirely about distance to downtown, and that matters, but an important and overlooked part of the costs comes from how neighborhoods were designed. The winding streets and cul-de-sacs turn what could be short, direct trips for grocery runs, errands and recreation into longer ones.”‘