La Rochelle 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 La Rochelle plotted against Nouvelle-Aquitaine and France. The SNDi of new construction in La Rochelle peaked in 1976-1990, compared to Nouvelle-Aquitaine which rose steadily and France which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, La Rochelle's incremental SNDi fell from 2.42 to 2.05 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, La Rochelle ranked 1st out of 7 cities in Nouvelle-Aquitaine and 12th out of 73 in France as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Tanjung, Indonesia
• Periyakulam, India
• Murbad, India
• Leme, Brazil
• Chengde, China
• Bolgatanga, Ghana

While Tanjung and Leme both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, La Rochelle built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved in new street additions. Looking at the full network, Tanjung and Leme both became progressively more disconnected, while La Rochelle grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. La Rochelle and Tanjung have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.