Honolulu in context: Street-network sprawl trends

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Honolulu plotted against Hawaii and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Honolulu peaked in 1976-1990, compared to Hawaii which peaked in 1976-1990 and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Honolulu's incremental SNDi fell from 6.04 to 3.42 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Honolulu ranked 2nd out of 4 cities in Hawaii and 284th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Homel, Belarus
• Dresden, Germany
• Siping, China
• Zigong, China
• Latur, India
• Kagoshima, Japan

In new street additions, Honolulu built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Homel built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Zigong built increasingly connected streets over time. For the full network, Honolulu grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Homel became progressively more disconnected and Zigong became progressively more connected. Honolulu and Zigong have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.