  We give a simple formula for the looping rate of loop-erased random walk on a
finite planar graph. The looping rate is closely related to the expected amount
of sand in a recurrent sandpile on the graph. The looping rate formula is
well-suited to taking limits where the graph tends to an infinite lattice, and
we use it to give an elementary derivation of the (previously computed) looping
rate and sandpile densities of the square, triangular, and honeycomb lattices,
and compute (for the first time) the looping rate and sandpile densities of
many other lattices, such as the kagome lattice, the dice lattice, and the
truncated hexagonal lattice (for which the values are all rational), and the
square-octagon lattice (for which it is transcendental).
