Vancouver in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Vancouver in context

2.433.64.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.433.64.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
VancouverBritish Columbia (Region)Canada (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Vancouver plotted against British Columbia and Canada. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Vancouver's incremental SNDi fell from 3.49 to 3.29 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Vancouver ranked 1st out of 8 cities in British Columbia and 16th out of 54 in Canada as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.29
Rank in Canada
27th of 54
Rank in British Columbia
3rd of 8

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.53
Rank in Canada
16th of 54
Rank in British Columbia
1st of 8

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2.73.64.55.4<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.73.64.55.4<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
VancouverPort-au-PrinceTangshan

While Port-au-Prince and Tangshan both built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, Vancouver built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved in new street additions. For the full network, Vancouver and Port-au-Prince both became progressively more disconnected, while Tangshan grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved.