Frankfurt in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Frankfurt in context

1.522.533.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.522.533.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
FrankfurtHessen (Region)Germany (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Frankfurt plotted against Hessen and Germany. The SNDi of new construction in Frankfurt peaked in 1976-1990, compared to Hessen which peaked in 1991-2005 and Germany which rose steadily. Most recently, Frankfurt's incremental SNDi fell from 2.19 to 2.0 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Frankfurt ranked 2nd out of 8 cities in Hessen and 15th out of 99 in Germany as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.0
Rank in Germany
9th of 99
Rank in Hessen
3rd of 8

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
1.7
Rank in Germany
15th of 99
Rank in Hessen
2nd of 8

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

What about similarly populated cities?

1.522.533.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.522.533.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
FrankfurtDonetskBikaner

In new street additions, Frankfurt built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Donetsk built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved and Bikaner fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Frankfurt and Bikaner have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.