Lafayette in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Lafayette in context

2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
LafayetteIndiana (Region)United States (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Lafayette plotted against Indiana and United States. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Lafayette's incremental SNDi fell from 4.39 to 3.67 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Lafayette ranked 4th out of 7 cities in Indiana as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.67
Rank in Indiana
2nd of 7

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.54
Rank in Indiana
4th of 7

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
LafayettePolvilhoMansa

In new street additions, Lafayette and Polvilho both built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Mansa built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Lafayette became progressively more disconnected, while Polvilho grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved and Mansa became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Lafayette and Mansa have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.