Lawrence in context: Street-network sprawl trends
Lawrence in context
The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Lawrence plotted against Massachusetts and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Lawrence peaked in 1976-1990, compared to Massachusetts which rose steadily and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Lawrence's incremental SNDi fell from 5.58 to 4.85 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Lawrence ranked 6th out of 10 cities in Massachusetts as of 2020.
New Street Additions (2006–2020)
- SNDi value
- 4.85
- Rank in Massachusetts
- 7th of 10
Entire Network (Aggregate)
- SNDi value
- 2.61
- Rank in Massachusetts
- 6th of 10
Rankings go from most connected to most disconnected — rank 1 is the most connected.
What about similarly populated cities?
In new street additions, Lawrence built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Berezniki built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns and Marand built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full network, Lawrence and Marand both became progressively more disconnected, while Berezniki became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Lawrence and Marand have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.