Las Vegas in context: Street-network sprawl trends
Las Vegas in context
The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Las Vegas plotted against Nevada and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Las Vegas was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Nevada which rose steadily and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Las Vegas's incremental SNDi rose from 4.15 to 4.61 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Las Vegas ranked 2nd out of 3 cities in Nevada and 257th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.
New Street Additions (2006–2020)
- SNDi value
- 4.61
- Rank in United States
- 220th of 333
- Rank in Nevada
- 2nd of 3
Entire Network (Aggregate)
- SNDi value
- 4.09
- Rank in United States
- 257th of 333
- Rank in Nevada
- 2nd of 3
Rankings go from most connected to most disconnected — rank 1 is the most connected.
What about similarly populated cities?
- Manaus, Brazil
- San José, Costa Rica
- Makassar, Indonesia
- Palembang, Indonesia
- Nantong, China
- Sapporo, Japan
While Manaus and Palembang both fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, Las Vegas built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns in new street additions. Looking at the full network, Manaus and Palembang both became progressively more disconnected, while Las Vegas became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards.