Anchorage in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Anchorage in context

2.83.54.24.9<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.83.54.24.9<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
AnchorageAlaska (Region)United States (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Anchorage plotted against Alaska and United States. The SNDi of new construction in Anchorage followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase, compared to Alaska which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and United States which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Anchorage's incremental SNDi rose from 4.12 to 4.43 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Anchorage ranked 1st out of 1 cities in Alaska and 176th out of 333 in United States as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
4.43
Rank in United States
204th of 333
Rank in Alaska
1st of 1

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.29
Rank in United States
176th of 333
Rank in Alaska
1st of 1

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
AnchoragePudukkottaiNakhon Pathom

In new street additions, Pudukkottai and Nakhon Pathom both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Anchorage fluctuated in street-construction patterns. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Anchorage and Nakhon Pathom have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.