Salem 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 Salem plotted against Oregon and United States. While Oregon and United States both peaked in 1991-2005, Salem's new street additions peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Salem's incremental SNDi fell from 4.8 to 4.43 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Salem ranked 4th out of 4 cities in Oregon and 222nd 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?

• Potosí, Bolivia
• As Sayh, Saudi Arabia
• Gejiu, China
• Neuquén, Argentina
• Palmira, Colombia
• Fenghua District, China

In new street additions, Salem built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Potosí fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Neuquén built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Salem became progressively more disconnected, while Potosí fluctuated in connectivity and Neuquén became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Salem and Potosí have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.