Chester in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Chester in context

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

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Chester plotted against Pennsylvania and United States. While Pennsylvania and United States both peaked in 1991-2005, Chester's new street additions peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Chester's incremental SNDi fell from 5.58 to 4.7 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Chester ranked 13th out of 16 cities in Pennsylvania and 111th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
4.7
Rank in United States
230th of 333
Rank in Pennsylvania
9th of 16

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.73
Rank in United States
111th of 333
Rank in Pennsylvania
13th of 16

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
ChesterXingyeNampa

In new street additions, Chester and Nampa both built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Xingye fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Chester and Nampa both became progressively more disconnected, while Xingye fluctuated in connectivity. Notably, Chester had a more sprawly network than Nampa in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.