Austin in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Austin 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
AustinTexas (Region)United States (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Austin plotted against Texas and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Austin rose steadily, compared to Texas which rose steadily and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Austin's incremental SNDi rose from 3.82 to 3.83 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Austin ranked 27th out of 42 cities in Texas and 180th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.83
Rank in United States
123rd of 333
Rank in Texas
28th of 42

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.35
Rank in United States
180th of 333
Rank in Texas
27th of 42

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2.83.23.64<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.83.23.64<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
AustinTabrizJalandhar

In new street additions, Austin built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Tabriz built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns and Jalandhar fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Austin and Jalandhar both became progressively more disconnected, while Tabriz became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Notably, Austin had a more connected network than Jalandhar in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.