Columbia in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Columbia in context

234567<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
234567<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
ColumbiaSouth Carolina (Region)United States (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Columbia plotted against South Carolina and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Columbia peaked in 1976-1990, compared to South Carolina which rose steadily and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Columbia's incremental SNDi fell from 2.99 to 2.97 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Columbia ranked 1st out of 1 cities in South Carolina and 74th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.97
Rank in United States
46th of 333
Rank in South Carolina
1st of 1

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.35
Rank in United States
74th of 333
Rank in South Carolina
1st of 1

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

What about similarly populated cities?

246810<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
246810<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
ColumbiaSibitiEregli

In new street additions, Columbia built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Sibiti built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved and Eregli built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full network, Columbia and Eregli both became progressively more disconnected, while Sibiti grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Notably, Columbia had a more sprawly network than Sibiti in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.