Golmud in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Golmud in context

1.82.73.64.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.82.73.64.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
GolmudQinghai (Region)China (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Golmud plotted against Qinghai and China. The SNDi of new construction in Golmud followed a zig-zag trend with an overall decrease, compared to Qinghai which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Golmud's incremental SNDi fell from 2.19 to 1.36 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Golmud ranked 4th out of 10 cities in Qinghai and 795th out of 1843 in China as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
1.36
Rank in China
46th of 1843
Rank in Qinghai
1st of 10

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.75
Rank in China
795th of 1843
Rank in Qinghai
4th of 10

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

What about similarly populated cities?

1.62.43.24<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.62.43.24<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
GolmudHartfordBiu

In new street additions, Golmud fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, while Hartford built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved and Biu built increasingly disconnected streets over time. Looking at the full network, Hartford and Biu both became progressively more disconnected, while Golmud became progressively more connected. Golmud and Hartford have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.