Pittsburgh in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Pittsburgh in context

2.43.244.8<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.43.244.8<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
PittsburghPennsylvania (Region)United States (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Pittsburgh plotted against Pennsylvania and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Pittsburgh 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, Pittsburgh's incremental SNDi rose from 4.72 to 5.18 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Pittsburgh ranked 14th out of 16 cities in Pennsylvania and 161st out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
5.18
Rank in United States
270th of 333
Rank in Pennsylvania
12th of 16

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.16
Rank in United States
161st of 333
Rank in Pennsylvania
14th of 16

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

What about similarly populated cities?

3456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
3456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
PittsburghOaxaca de JuarezValparaiso de Goias

In new street additions, Pittsburgh and Valparaíso de Goiás both fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Oaxaca de Juárez built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Notably, Pittsburgh had a more sprawly network than Oaxaca de Juárez in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.