Providence in context: Street-network sprawl trends

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Providence plotted against Rhode Island and United States. While Rhode Island and United States both peaked in 1991-2005, Providence's new street additions peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Providence's incremental SNDi fell from 6.01 to 4.93 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Providence ranked 1st out of 1 cities in Rhode Island as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Fangshan, China
• Mainpuri, India
• Orenburg, Russia
• Shaoguan, China
• Nagercoil, India
• Piura, Peru

In new street additions, Providence and Shaoguan both built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Fangshan built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Providence and Shaoguan both became progressively more disconnected, while Fangshan became progressively more connected. Providence and Shaoguan have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.