"the city sprawls in the direction of the LRT lines."
Yes, the city built an LRT line to the bush and the city followed it!
Why did Thunder Bay get a new by-pass? Because we built the first one and everyone though "Great! Now we can live further away and get to work in the same amount of time!" Then the amount of traffic got so bad, they had to build another one! And by 2030, we'll have three.