Lincoln in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Lincoln in context

2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
LincolnNebraska (Region)United States (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Lincoln plotted against Nebraska and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Lincoln rose steadily, compared to Nebraska which peaked in 1991-2005 and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Lincoln's incremental SNDi rose from 3.22 to 3.38 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Lincoln ranked 2nd out of 3 cities in Nebraska and 69th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.38
Rank in United States
72nd of 333
Rank in Nebraska
3rd of 3

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.28
Rank in United States
69th of 333
Rank in Nebraska
2nd of 3

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

What about similarly populated cities?

1.82.433.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.82.433.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
LincolnWichitaKiel

Lincoln, Wichita, and Kiel all built increasingly disconnected streets over time in new street construction. The same pattern holds for the full street network. Notably, Lincoln had a more connected network than Wichita in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.