Allentown in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Allentown in context

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

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Allentown plotted against Pennsylvania and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Allentown followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase, compared to Pennsylvania which rose steadily and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Allentown's incremental SNDi rose from 3.26 to 4.82 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Allentown ranked 4th out of 16 cities in Pennsylvania and 16th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
4.82
Rank in United States
239th of 333
Rank in Pennsylvania
10th of 16

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
1.75
Rank in United States
16th of 333
Rank in Pennsylvania
4th of 16

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

What about similarly populated cities?

12345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
12345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
AllentownKibre MengistBongor

Allentown, Kibre Mengist, and Bongor all fluctuated in its street-construction patterns in new street construction. The same pattern holds for the full street network. Allentown and Kibre Mengist have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.