Shimla 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 Shimla plotted against Himachal Pradesh and India. The SNDi of new construction in Shimla was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Himachal Pradesh which was at its lowest in 1976-1990 and India which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Shimla's incremental SNDi rose from 8.73 to 10.99 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Shimla ranked 6th out of 6 cities in Himachal Pradesh and 1838th out of 1868 in India as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Xinyi, China
• Anji, China
• Harar, Ethiopia
• Getian, China
• Okrika, Nigeria
• Kulim, Malaysia

In new street additions, Shimla built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Xinyi fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Getian fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Shimla became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards, while Xinyi fluctuated in connectivity and Getian fluctuated in connectivity.