Richmond in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Richmond in context

123456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
123456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
RichmondVirginia (Region)United States (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Richmond plotted against Virginia and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Richmond rose steadily, compared to Virginia which peaked in 1991-2005 and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Richmond's incremental SNDi rose from 2.19 to 2.9 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Richmond ranked 1st out of 11 cities in Virginia and 6th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.9
Rank in United States
40th of 333
Rank in Virginia
1st of 11

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
1.63
Rank in United States
6th of 333
Rank in Virginia
1st of 11

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2468<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2468<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
RichmondChangningGhotki

In new street additions, Richmond and Changning both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Ghotki built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Richmond and Changning both became progressively more disconnected, while Ghotki became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Richmond and Changning have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.