> basically no reason to care about wasting lots of horizontal space There is, but not obvious: the effect can be seen in Silicon Valley where it takes fore

> basically no reason to care about wasting lots of horizontal space There is, but not obvious: the effect can be seen in Silicon Valley where it takes forevery to get anywhere because you need to drive a long distance to get to your destination because it is so far away. Long distances make for congestion when cars are the main method of transportation (also: see LA). Subways (and cyckling) scale a lot better. See Paris/London or Tokyo or Amsterdam/Copenhagen.