Wilmington in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Wilmington in context

3456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
3456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
WilmingtonNorth Carolina (Region)United States (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Wilmington plotted against North Carolina and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Wilmington rose steadily, compared to North Carolina which peaked in 1991-2005 and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Wilmington's incremental SNDi rose from 3.61 to 4.09 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Wilmington ranked 2nd out of 7 cities in North Carolina and 135th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
4.09
Rank in United States
157th of 333
Rank in North Carolina
1st of 7

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.95
Rank in United States
135th of 333
Rank in North Carolina
2nd of 7

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
WilmingtonAtamanovoTochigi

In new street additions, Wilmington and Atamanovo both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Tochigi built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. For the full network, Wilmington and Atamanovo both became progressively more disconnected, while Tochigi grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved.