Karaj 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 Karaj plotted against Alborz and Iran. The SNDi of new construction in Karaj was at its lowest in 1976-1990, compared to Alborz which was at its lowest in 1976-1990 and Iran which rose steadily. Most recently, Karaj's incremental SNDi rose from 4.58 to 4.59 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Karaj ranked 6th out of 7 cities in Alborz and 153rd out of 169 in Iran as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Montreal, Canada
• Nagpur, India
• Caracas, Venezuela
• Indore, India
• Douala, Cameroon
• Damascus, Syria

While Montreal and Indore both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, Karaj built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns in new street additions. Looking at the full network, Montreal and Indore both became progressively more disconnected, while Karaj became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Karaj and Indore have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.