Portland in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Portland in context

2.83.54.24.9<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.83.54.24.9<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
PortlandOregon (Region)United States (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Portland plotted against Oregon and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Portland peaked in 1976-1990, compared to Oregon which peaked in 1976-1990 and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Portland's incremental SNDi fell from 4.38 to 4.13 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Portland ranked 2nd out of 4 cities in Oregon and 178th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
4.13
Rank in United States
166th of 333
Rank in Oregon
2nd of 4

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.31
Rank in United States
178th of 333
Rank in Oregon
2nd of 4

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

What about similarly populated cities?

23456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
23456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
PortlandNiteroiHavana

In new street additions, Portland built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Niterói fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Havana built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend.