Providence in context: Street-network sprawl trends

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Providence plotted against Nevada and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Providence followed a zig-zag trend with an overall decrease, compared to Nevada which rose steadily and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Providence's incremental SNDi rose from 4.91 to 4.97 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Providence ranked 3rd out of 3 cities in Nevada and 304th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Arun, China
• Caldas Novas, Brazil
• Cortazar, México
• Yaodu, China
• Namur, Belgium
• Neyyatinkara, India

In new street additions, Providence fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Arun built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved and Yaodu built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Providence grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Arun grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved and Yaodu became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Providence and Arun have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.