Milan in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Milan in context

2.433.64.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.433.64.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
MilanLombardia (Region)Italy (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Milan plotted against Lombardia and Italy. While Lombardia and Italy both peaked in 1991-2005, Milan's new street additions peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Milan's incremental SNDi fell from 3.15 to 2.82 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Milan ranked 3rd out of 11 cities in Lombardia and 32nd out of 88 in Italy as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.82
Rank in Italy
20th of 88
Rank in Lombardia
1st of 11

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.45
Rank in Italy
32nd of 88
Rank in Lombardia
3rd of 11

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2.12.83.54.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.12.83.54.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
MilanShijiazhuangAnkara

In new street additions, Milan built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Shijiazhuang built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Ankara built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Milan and Shijiazhuang have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.