Americans tend to value square footage over their commute time. So the cycle goes: 1. Hmm, I can get 2000 sqft inside the loop and 5000 sqft in the outer subur

Americans tend to value square footage over their commute time. So the cycle goes: 1. Hmm, I can get 2000 sqft inside the loop and 5000 sqft in the outer suburbs. Outer suburb for me! 2. Everyone else does the same thing and the area grows 3. The people in the outer suburbs starts loudly complaining about how horrible traffic has become (because they moved there when relatively few other people lived at and beyond the edge) 4. Roads are widened and new roads are built to ease traffic. 5. Now that there's road capacity, developers start building out even further. 6. Repeat step one with different people another layer out and the cycle continues.