Los Ángeles in context: Street-network sprawl trends

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Los Ángeles plotted against Bío-Bío and Chile. The SNDi of new construction in Los Ángeles rose steadily, compared to Bío-Bío which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and Chile which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Los Ángeles's incremental SNDi rose from 3.32 to 3.57 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Los Ángeles ranked 4th out of 6 cities in Bío-Bío and 26th out of 38 in Chile as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Xiushui, China
• Hubli, India
• Andkhoy, Afghanistan
• Kahama, Tanzania
• Lanshan, China
• Fazenda Parque Recreio, Brazil

In new street additions, Los Ángeles built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Xiushui built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved and Kahama built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Los Ángeles and Xiushui both became progressively more disconnected, while Kahama became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Los Ángeles and Kahama have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.