Santa Barbara in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Santa Barbara in context

2.43.244.8<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.43.244.8<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
Santa BarbaraCalifornia (Region)United States (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Santa Barbara plotted against California and United States. While California and United States both peaked in 1991-2005, Santa Barbara's new street additions peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Santa Barbara's incremental SNDi fell from 4.64 to 4.11 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Santa Barbara ranked 11th out of 60 cities in California and 150th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
4.11
Rank in United States
161st of 333
Rank in California
31st of 60

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.09
Rank in United States
150th of 333
Rank in California
11th of 60

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

What about similarly populated cities?

246<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
246<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
Santa BarbaraO'FallonMasohi

In new street additions, Santa Barbara and O’Fallon both built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Masohi built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend.