Fort Collins in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Fort Collins 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
Fort CollinsColorado (Region)United States (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Fort Collins plotted against Colorado and United States. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Fort Collins's incremental SNDi fell from 3.75 to 2.51 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Fort Collins ranked 6th out of 9 cities in Colorado and 136th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.51
Rank in United States
17th of 333
Rank in Colorado
3rd of 9

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.96
Rank in United States
136th of 333
Rank in Colorado
6th of 9

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
Fort CollinsKargilikGundo Meskel

In new street additions, Fort Collins built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Kargilik fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Gundo Meskel built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Fort Collins grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Kargilik fluctuated in connectivity and Gundo Meskel became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Notably, Fort Collins had a more sprawly network than Gundo Meskel in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.