Sarnia in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Sarnia in context

345678<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
345678<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
SarniaOntario (Region)Canada (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Sarnia plotted against Ontario and Canada. The SNDi of new construction in Sarnia rose steadily, compared to Ontario which peaked in 1976-1990 and Canada which peaked in 1976-1990. Most recently, Sarnia's incremental SNDi rose from 4.39 to 7.42 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Sarnia ranked 24th out of 24 cities in Ontario and 52nd out of 54 in Canada as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
7.42
Rank in Canada
54th of 54
Rank in Ontario
24th of 24

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.66
Rank in Canada
52nd of 54
Rank in Ontario
24th of 24

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
SarniaWatansoppengSan Felipe

In new street additions, Sarnia and San Felipe both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Watansoppeng fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Sarnia and Watansoppeng have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.