Albuquerque in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Albuquerque in context

2.43.244.8<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.43.244.8<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
AlbuquerqueNew Mexico (Region)United States (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Albuquerque plotted against New Mexico and United States. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Albuquerque's incremental SNDi fell from 4.31 to 4.18 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Albuquerque ranked 2nd out of 4 cities in New Mexico and 128th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
4.18
Rank in United States
175th of 333
Rank in New Mexico
3rd of 4

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.86
Rank in United States
128th of 333
Rank in New Mexico
2nd of 4

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2.73.64.55.4<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.73.64.55.4<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
AlbuquerqueHafizabadJhelum

While Hafizabad and Jhelum both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, Albuquerque built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved in new street additions. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Albuquerque and Hafizabad have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.