Spokane in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Spokane in context

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

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Spokane plotted against Washington and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Spokane rose steadily, compared to Washington which peaked in 1976-1990 and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Spokane's incremental SNDi rose from 3.48 to 3.87 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Spokane ranked 1st out of 8 cities in Washington and 54th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.87
Rank in United States
129th of 333
Rank in Washington
2nd of 8

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.15
Rank in United States
54th of 333
Rank in Washington
1st of 8

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

What about similarly populated cities?

1.82.433.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.82.433.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
SpokaneSanmenxiaWardha

While Sanmenxia and Wardha both fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, Spokane built increasingly disconnected streets over time in new street additions. For the full network, Spokane and Wardha both became progressively more disconnected, while Sanmenxia fluctuated in connectivity. Spokane and Sanmenxia have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.