Cary 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 Cary plotted against North Carolina and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Cary peaked in 1976-1990, compared to North Carolina which peaked in 1991-2005 and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Cary's incremental SNDi fell from 5.27 to 4.32 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Cary ranked 6th out of 7 cities in North Carolina and 307th 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?

• La Louvière, Belgium
• Gʻuzor, Uzbekistan
• Wenchengzhen, China
• Lahijan, Iran
• Panlongcheng Economic Development Zone, China
• Luodong, Taiwan

In new street additions, Cary built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while La Louvière built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Lahijan built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Cary grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while La Louvière became progressively more disconnected and Lahijan became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards.