New York City in context: Street-network sprawl trends

New York City in context

2.73.64.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.73.64.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
New York CityNew York (Region)United States (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with New York City plotted against New York and United States. The SNDi of new construction in New York City followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase, compared to New York which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, New York City's incremental SNDi rose from 3.65 to 3.69 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, New York City ranked 6th out of 12 cities in New York and 83rd out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.69
Rank in United States
104th of 333
Rank in New York
5th of 12

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.47
Rank in United States
83rd of 333
Rank in New York
6th of 12

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

What about similarly populated cities?

246810<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
246810<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
New York CityBangkokIstanbul

In new street additions, New York City and Istanbul both fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Bangkok built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. New York City and Bangkok have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.