Tampa in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Tampa in context

2.73.64.55.4<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.73.64.55.4<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
TampaFlorida (Region)United States (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Tampa plotted against Florida and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Tampa rose steadily, compared to Florida which rose steadily and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Tampa's incremental SNDi rose from 4.94 to 5.17 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Tampa ranked 4th out of 27 cities in Florida and 171st out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
5.17
Rank in United States
267th of 333
Rank in Florida
13th of 27

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.23
Rank in United States
171st of 333
Rank in Florida
4th of 27

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

What about similarly populated cities?

34567<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
34567<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
TampaAcapulcoEvaton

Tampa, Acapulco, and Evaton all built increasingly disconnected streets over time in new street construction. The same pattern holds for the full street network. Tampa and Acapulco have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.