Chongming in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Chongming 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
ChongmingShanghai (Region)China (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Chongming plotted against Shanghai and China. The SNDi of new construction in Chongming peaked in 1976-1990, compared to Shanghai which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Chongming's incremental SNDi fell from 2.97 to 2.5 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Chongming ranked 2nd out of 11 cities in Shanghai and 639th out of 1843 in China as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.5
Rank in China
517th of 1843
Rank in Shanghai
1st of 11

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.57
Rank in China
639th of 1843
Rank in Shanghai
2nd of 11

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2345<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
ChongmingSolweziSan Antonio

In new street additions, Chongming and San Antonio both built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Solwezi built increasingly disconnected streets over time. Looking at the full network, Solwezi and San Antonio both became progressively more disconnected, while Chongming grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Chongming and Solwezi have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.