Grand Rapids in context: Street-network sprawl trends
Grand Rapids in context
The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Grand Rapids plotted against Michigan and United States. While Michigan and United States both peaked in 1991-2005, Grand Rapids's new street additions peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Grand Rapids's incremental SNDi fell from 4.1 to 3.69 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Grand Rapids ranked 6th out of 7 cities in Michigan and 102nd out of 333 in United States as of 2020.
New Street Additions (2006–2020)
- SNDi value
- 3.69
- Rank in United States
- 105th of 333
- Rank in Michigan
- 4th of 7
Entire Network (Aggregate)
- SNDi value
- 2.67
- Rank in United States
- 102nd of 333
- Rank in Michigan
- 6th of 7
Rankings go from most connected to most disconnected — rank 1 is the most connected.
What about similarly populated cities?
In new street additions, Grand Rapids and Wafangdian both built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Dere built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Grand Rapids and Wafangdian have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.