Kozhikode 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 Kozhikode plotted against Kerala and India. The SNDi of new construction in Kozhikode was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Kerala which was at its lowest in 1976-1990 and India which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Kozhikode's incremental SNDi rose from 5.51 to 6.86 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Kozhikode ranked 37th out of 48 cities in Kerala and 1659th 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?

• San Francisco, United States
• Chattogram, Bangladesh
• Lucknow, India
• Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
• Zhengzhou, China
• Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte], Sri Lanka

In new street additions, Kozhikode built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while San Francisco built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved and Addis Ababa fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Kozhikode became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards, while San Francisco became progressively more disconnected and Addis Ababa fluctuated in connectivity.