Rochester in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Rochester in context

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

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Rochester plotted against New York and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Rochester peaked in 1976-1990, compared to New York which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Rochester's incremental SNDi fell from 3.02 to 2.77 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Rochester ranked 3rd out of 12 cities in New York as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.77
Rank in New York
3rd of 12

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.03
Rank in New York
3rd of 12

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

What about similarly populated cities?

123456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
123456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
RochesterKasganjMachala

While Kasganj and Machala both fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, Rochester built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved in new street additions. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Rochester and Kasganj have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.