Zhongshan in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Zhongshan in context

12345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
12345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
ZhongshanGuangxi (Region)China (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Zhongshan plotted against Guangxi and China. The SNDi of new construction in Zhongshan peaked in 1991-2005, compared to Guangxi which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Zhongshan's incremental SNDi fell from 1.67 to 1.34 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Zhongshan ranked 1st out of 63 cities in Guangxi and 20th out of 1843 in China as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
1.34
Rank in China
44th of 1843
Rank in Guangxi
3rd of 63

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
1.34
Rank in China
20th of 1843
Rank in Guangxi
1st of 63

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

What about similarly populated cities?

12345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
12345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
ZhongshanGbonganSiegen

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