Atlanta in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Atlanta in context

34567<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
34567<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
AtlantaGeorgia (Region)United States (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Atlanta plotted against Georgia and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Atlanta followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase, compared to Georgia which rose steadily and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Atlanta's incremental SNDi rose from 4.31 to 4.79 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Atlanta ranked 2nd out of 8 cities in Georgia and 226th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
4.79
Rank in United States
236th of 333
Rank in Georgia
2nd of 8

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.7
Rank in United States
226th of 333
Rank in Georgia
2nd of 8

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

What about similarly populated cities?

1.82.73.64.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.82.73.64.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
AtlantaPoznanZucheng

In new street additions, Atlanta fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Poznan built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Zucheng built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. For the full network, Atlanta and Poznan both became progressively more disconnected, while Zucheng grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved.