Wilkes-Barre in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Wilkes-Barre in context

1.82.73.64.55.4<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.82.73.64.55.4<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
Wilkes-BarrePennsylvania (Region)United States (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Wilkes-Barre plotted against Pennsylvania and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Wilkes-Barre peaked in 1976-1990, compared to Pennsylvania which rose steadily and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Wilkes-Barre's incremental SNDi fell from 4.11 to 3.52 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Wilkes-Barre ranked 10th out of 16 cities in Pennsylvania and 56th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.52
Rank in United States
87th of 333
Rank in Pennsylvania
6th of 16

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.17
Rank in United States
56th of 333
Rank in Pennsylvania
10th 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
Wilkes-BarreBaiquanLobanovo

While Baiquan and Лобаново both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, Wilkes-Barre built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved in new street additions. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Notably, Wilkes-Barre had a more sprawly network than Baiquan in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.