Tongcheng in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Tongcheng in context

1234<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1234<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
TongchengHubei (Region)China (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Tongcheng plotted against Hubei and China. The SNDi of new construction in Tongcheng followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase, compared to Hubei which peaked in 1976-1990 and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Tongcheng's incremental SNDi fell from 4.38 to 3.66 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Tongcheng ranked 44th out of 77 cities in Hubei and 1032nd out of 1843 in China as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.66
Rank in China
1227th of 1843
Rank in Hubei
58th of 77

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.0
Rank in China
1032nd of 1843
Rank in Hubei
44th of 77

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

What about similarly populated cities?

123456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
123456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
TongchengLevittownZhongning

While Levittown and Zhongning both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, Tongcheng fluctuated in its street-construction patterns in new street additions. Looking at the full network, Levittown and Zhongning both became progressively more disconnected, while Tongcheng became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Tongcheng and Levittown have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.