Dallas in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Dallas in context

2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
DallasTexas (Region)United States (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Dallas plotted against Texas and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Dallas rose steadily, compared to Texas which rose steadily and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Dallas's incremental SNDi rose from 2.66 to 2.69 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Dallas ranked 9th out of 42 cities in Texas and 57th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.69
Rank in United States
29th of 333
Rank in Texas
7th of 42

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.18
Rank in United States
57th of 333
Rank in Texas
9th of 42

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

What about similarly populated cities?

23456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
23456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
DallasQuitoPrayagraj

In new street additions, Dallas and Prayagraj both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Quito built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Dallas and Prayagraj have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.