Bellingham in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Bellingham in context

23456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
23456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
BellinghamWashington (Region)United States (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Bellingham plotted against Washington and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Bellingham rose steadily, compared to Washington which peaked in 1976-1990 and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Bellingham's incremental SNDi rose from 4.04 to 4.3 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Bellingham ranked 2nd out of 8 cities in Washington and 65th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
4.3
Rank in United States
187th of 333
Rank in Washington
3rd of 8

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.23
Rank in United States
65th of 333
Rank in Washington
2nd of 8

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

What about similarly populated cities?

12345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
12345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
BellinghamSayramLaishui

In new street additions, Bellingham built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Sayram built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved and Laishui built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. For the full network, Bellingham and Laishui both became progressively more disconnected, while Sayram grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved.