Houston in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Houston 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
HoustonTexas (Region)United States (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Houston plotted against Texas and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Houston rose steadily, compared to Texas which rose steadily and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Houston's incremental SNDi rose from 4.38 to 4.93 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Houston ranked 29th out of 42 cities in Texas and 182nd out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
4.93
Rank in United States
246th of 333
Rank in Texas
36th of 42

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.36
Rank in United States
182nd of 333
Rank in Texas
29th of 42

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2.73.64.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.73.64.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
HoustonJinanQingdao

In new street additions, Houston and Qingdao both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Jinan built increasingly connected streets over time. For the full network, Houston and Qingdao both became progressively more disconnected, while Jinan became progressively more connected. Notably, Houston had a more connected network than Jinan in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.