Baltimore in context: Street-network sprawl trends
Baltimore in context
The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Baltimore plotted against Maryland and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Baltimore peaked in 1976-1990, compared to Maryland which peaked in 1976-1990 and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Baltimore's incremental SNDi fell from 4.61 to 4.29 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Baltimore ranked 1st out of 5 cities in Maryland and 84th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.
New Street Additions (2006–2020)
- SNDi value
- 4.29
- Rank in United States
- 186th of 333
- Rank in Maryland
- 2nd of 5
Entire Network (Aggregate)
- SNDi value
- 2.51
- Rank in United States
- 84th of 333
- Rank in Maryland
- 1st of 5
Rankings go from most connected to most disconnected — rank 1 is the most connected.
What about similarly populated cities?
In new street additions, Baltimore built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Uyo built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Odesa built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Baltimore and Uyo both became progressively more disconnected, while Odesa became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Baltimore and Uyo have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.