Montpellier 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 Montpellier plotted against Occitanie and France. The SNDi of new construction in Montpellier peaked in 1976-1990, compared to Occitanie which peaked in 1991-2005 and France which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Montpellier's incremental SNDi fell from 3.07 to 2.63 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Montpellier ranked 4th out of 5 cities in Occitanie and 41st 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?

• Valletta, Malta
• Qazvin, Iran
• Kaili, China
• Safi, Morocco
• Valladolid, Spain
• Vizianagaram, India

In new street additions, Montpellier built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Valletta built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Safi built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Montpellier grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Valletta became progressively more disconnected and Safi became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards.