Pingyao 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 Pingyao plotted against Shanxi and China. The SNDi of new construction in Pingyao rose steadily, compared to Shanxi which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and China which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Pingyao's incremental SNDi rose from 3.18 to 3.36 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Pingyao ranked 31st out of 80 cities in Shanxi and 835th out of 1843 in China as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Haleva, Belarus
• Pyay, Myanmar
• Arnhem, Netherlands
• Dumaguete, Philippines
• Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya, Thailand
• Kashan, Iran

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