Wasatch Front leaders who seek to halt urban sprawl and instead develop new town centers around transit hubs might do more than just reduce traffic congestion and pollution — they may also make social interaction much easier, fueling more innovation and creativity locally.
That’s according to a Steven Farber, a University of Utah geography professor who just published, along with Xiao Li, research in the Journal of Transport Geography about how social interaction is affected by sprawl or centralization.
The consortium envisions that many people would live in buildings that have businesses on the first floor, offices on the second and residences above that. Town centers would be designed to allow people to live, work and play in the same area so they would commute less. Salt Lake Tribune