Aachen in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Aachen 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
AachenNordrhein-Westfalen (Region)Germany (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Aachen plotted against Nordrhein-Westfalen and Germany. The SNDi of new construction in Aachen peaked in 1991-2005, compared to Nordrhein-Westfalen which rose steadily and Germany which rose steadily. Most recently, Aachen's incremental SNDi fell from 2.75 to 2.56 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Aachen ranked 5th out of 24 cities in Nordrhein-Westfalen and 41st out of 99 in Germany as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.56
Rank in Germany
41st of 99
Rank in Nordrhein-Westfalen
10th of 24

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
1.91
Rank in Germany
41st of 99
Rank in Nordrhein-Westfalen
5th of 24

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

What about similarly populated cities?

246<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
246<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
AachenYanpingGondanglegi

In new street additions, Aachen and Yanping both built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Gondanglegi built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full network, Aachen and Gondanglegi both became progressively more disconnected, while Yanping grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved.