Erie in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Erie in context

246<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
246<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
EriePennsylvania (Region)United States (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Erie plotted against Pennsylvania and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Erie rose steadily, compared to Pennsylvania which rose steadily and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Erie's incremental SNDi rose from 3.31 to 6.64 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Erie ranked 3rd out of 16 cities in Pennsylvania and 15th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
6.64
Rank in United States
315th of 333
Rank in Pennsylvania
16th of 16

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
1.74
Rank in United States
15th of 333
Rank in Pennsylvania
3rd of 16

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2468<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2468<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
ErieSamarlakotaTeresopolis

In new street additions, Erie and Teresópolis both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Samarlakota fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Erie and Samarlakota have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.