Huntsville in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Huntsville in context

3456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
3456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
HuntsvilleAlabama (Region)United States (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Huntsville plotted against Alabama and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Huntsville peaked in 1976-1990, compared to Alabama which rose steadily and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Huntsville's incremental SNDi fell from 3.71 to 3.49 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Huntsville ranked 3rd out of 4 cities in Alabama and 109th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.49
Rank in United States
81st of 333
Rank in Alabama
1st of 4

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.72
Rank in United States
109th of 333
Rank in Alabama
3rd of 4

Rankings go from most connected to most disconnected — rank 1 is the most connected.

What about similarly populated cities?

1.42.12.83.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.42.12.83.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
HuntsvilleHilversumLuojiang

In new street additions, Huntsville and Hilversum both built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Luojiang built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Huntsville became progressively more disconnected, while Hilversum grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved and Luojiang became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Notably, Huntsville had a more connected network than Luojiang in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.