Sydney in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Sydney 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
SydneyNew South Wales (Region)Australia (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Sydney plotted against New South Wales and Australia. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Sydney's incremental SNDi fell from 4.8 to 3.45 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Sydney ranked 1st out of 6 cities in New South Wales and 12th out of 35 in Australia as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.45
Rank in Australia
16th of 35
Rank in New South Wales
3rd of 6

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.23
Rank in Australia
12th of 35
Rank in New South Wales
1st of 6

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2.43.244.8<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.43.244.8<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
SydneyDubaiJaipur

In new street additions, Sydney built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Dubai built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Jaipur fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend.