Thiruvaiyaru 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 Thiruvaiyaru plotted against Tamil Nadu and India. The SNDi of new construction in Thiruvaiyaru was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Tamil Nadu which rose steadily and India which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Thiruvaiyaru's incremental SNDi rose from 4.4 to 5.57 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Thiruvaiyaru ranked 105th out of 121 cities in Tamil Nadu and 1409th 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?

• Vélingara, Senegal
• Yegoryevsk, Russia
• Buôn Hồ, Vietnam
• El Zorro, Venezuela
• Luling, China
• Lahar, India

While Vélingara and El Zorro both fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, Thiruvaiyaru built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns in new street additions. Looking at the full network, Vélingara and El Zorro both fluctuated in connectivity, while Thiruvaiyaru became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards.