Bakersfield in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Bakersfield in context

2.83.54.24.9<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.83.54.24.9<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
BakersfieldCalifornia (Region)United States (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Bakersfield plotted against California and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Bakersfield rose steadily, compared to California which peaked in 1976-1990 and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Bakersfield's incremental SNDi rose from 4.26 to 4.47 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Bakersfield ranked 29th out of 60 cities in California and 215th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
4.47
Rank in United States
212th of 333
Rank in California
45th of 60

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.6
Rank in United States
215th of 333
Rank in California
29th of 60

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2.433.64.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.433.64.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
BakersfieldPanjinKhabarovsk

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