Kansas City in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Kansas City in context

23456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
23456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
Kansas CityMissouri (Region)United States (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Kansas City plotted against Missouri and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Kansas City rose steadily, compared to Missouri which peaked in 1991-2005 and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Kansas City's incremental SNDi rose from 3.05 to 3.3 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Kansas City ranked 1st out of 4 cities in Missouri and 63rd out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.3
Rank in United States
66th of 333
Rank in Missouri
1st of 4

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.22
Rank in United States
63rd of 333
Rank in Missouri
1st of 4

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

What about similarly populated cities?

234567<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
234567<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
Kansas CityXinxingBatangas City

In new street additions, Kansas City built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Xinxing built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved and Batangas City built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. For the full network, Kansas City and Batangas City both became progressively more disconnected, while Xinxing grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. Kansas City and Xinxing have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.