Cleveland in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Cleveland in context

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

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Cleveland plotted against Ohio and United States. While Ohio and United States both peaked in 1991-2005, Cleveland's new street additions peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Cleveland's incremental SNDi fell from 3.44 to 3.18 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Cleveland ranked 5th out of 11 cities in Ohio and 55th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.18
Rank in United States
54th of 333
Rank in Ohio
2nd of 11

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.17
Rank in United States
55th of 333
Rank in Ohio
5th of 11

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2.43.244.8<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.43.244.8<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
ClevelandNew OrleansBilbao

While New Orleans and Bilbao both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, Cleveland 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.