Population and Housing

[plam]

One could say that but Wellington also has Lower Hutt (100k), Upper Hutt (56k), and Porirua (56k) which are pretty cut off from Wellington by geographic features (hills). They are connected by commuter rail and not very high capacity highways.

I have only been to Wellington once, and it was many years ago, so my memory is a bit fuzzy on this. But wouldn't it be fair to say that the geography (hills!) constraints the sprawl in Wellington much more than it does here, where we are surrounded by flat farmland and former farmland?

Generally correct, although e.g. San Francisco and Boston were built in similar topography and ignored or filled in the hills to different extents. Wellington had a Town Belt which is somewhat similar to Ontario's Green Belt, though much smaller. That's why I can see so much green from my window as opposed to houses.

It does take much more effort to traverse the hills in Wellington for sure, though they are slowly building more highway capacity. Having said that, I don't think there is anything more than 6 lanes.