Privatizing the fringe: patterns of private streets in a slow growth region

Abstract

Recent studies of private streets have focussed on urban and suburban areas experiencing rapid growth; however, private road networks are also proliferating in some exurban and rural regions in areas of modest or slow growth. This study examines development on private roads in the commuter-shed of Halifax, Nova Scotia. On the basis of a detailed investigation of private roads conducted in 2006, we document how developers use private streets, describe the design features that result, and consider the socio-spatial implications private streets generate. The analysis reveals different ‘classes’ of private landscapes: from low end rural tracks with mobile homes or cars under repair in front yards, to high-end lakefront homes with expensive cars parked in the driveways. While private streets in the urban context facilitate sustainability goals like intensification and walkability, in the rural and exurban context private streets may reveal a second-class landscape where the affluent have good streets, the poor have potholes, and everyone has to drive everywhere.