Arlington in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Arlington 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
ArlingtonTexas (Region)United States (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Arlington plotted against Texas and United States. While Texas and United States both peaked in 1991-2005, Arlington's new street additions peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Arlington's incremental SNDi fell from 3.62 to 3.48 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Arlington ranked 25th out of 42 cities in Texas and 164th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.48
Rank in United States
80th of 333
Rank in Texas
21st of 42

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.18
Rank in United States
164th of 333
Rank in Texas
25th of 42

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

What about similarly populated cities?

1.82.433.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.82.433.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
ArlingtonWeihaiLakhimpur

In new street additions, Arlington built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Weihai fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Lakhimpur built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Arlington and Weihai have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.