Lawrence in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Lawrence 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
LawrenceKansas (Region)United States (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Lawrence plotted against Kansas and United States. While Kansas and United States both peaked in 1991-2005, Lawrence's new street additions peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Lawrence's incremental SNDi fell from 3.91 to 3.88 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Lawrence ranked 2nd out of 3 cities in Kansas and 133rd out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.88
Rank in United States
132nd of 333
Rank in Kansas
3rd of 3

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.91
Rank in United States
133rd of 333
Rank in Kansas
2nd of 3

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2468<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2468<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
LawrenceEkwegbeWaimaw

In new street additions, Lawrence and Waimaw both built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Ekwegbe built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Lawrence and Waimaw both became progressively more disconnected, while Ekwegbe became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards.