Omaha in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Omaha in context

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

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Omaha plotted against Nebraska and United States. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Omaha's incremental SNDi fell from 3.02 to 2.81 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Omaha ranked 1st out of 3 cities in Nebraska and 46th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.81
Rank in United States
36th of 333
Rank in Nebraska
2nd of 3

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.09
Rank in United States
46th of 333
Rank in Nebraska
1st of 3

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2.12.83.54.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.12.83.54.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
OmahaKitchenerPlovdiv

In new street additions, Omaha built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Kitchener built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved and Plovdiv built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Omaha and Kitchener both became progressively more disconnected, while Plovdiv became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Notably, Omaha had a more connected network than Plovdiv in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.