Americans rank suburban sprawl and traffic congestion as top problems for their local government; yet the problems get worse as more than half of us choose to park our SUVs in the suburb and infrastructure struggles to keep up.

Civil engineers work with, and for, organizations such as public utilities, departments of transportation, government agencies and private corporations of all kinds. Civil engineers take their lead from the public: what the public says, and, more importantly, what the public does.

As the outcry against suburban sprawl increases, the fundamental question is: who's responsible for the ways in which Americans choose to live? The complexity of infrastructure decision-making is displayed through an examination of ever-expanding suburbs.