Hirosaki 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 Hirosaki plotted against Aomori and Japan. The SNDi of new construction in Hirosaki peaked in 1976-1990, compared to Aomori which peaked in 1976-1990 and Japan which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Hirosaki's incremental SNDi fell from 2.45 to 2.32 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Hirosaki ranked 1st out of 3 cities in Aomori and 93rd out of 135 in Japan as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Zamora, México
• Roxas, Philippines
• Tongchuan, China
• Apeldoorn, Netherlands
• Adiela, Sudan
• Saga, Japan

In new street additions, Hirosaki built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Zamora built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved and Apeldoorn built increasingly disconnected streets over time. Looking at the full network, Zamora and Apeldoorn both became progressively more disconnected, while Hirosaki grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. Notably, Hirosaki had a more sprawly network than Zamora in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.