Utsunomiya 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 Utsunomiya plotted against Tochigi and Japan. The SNDi of new construction in Utsunomiya peaked in 1976-1990, compared to Tochigi which peaked in 1976-1990 and Japan which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Utsunomiya's incremental SNDi fell from 2.6 to 2.6 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Utsunomiya ranked 4th out of 4 cities in Tochigi and 78th 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?

• Uvira, Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Santiago del Estero, Argentina
• Vitsebsk, Belarus
• Jakdo-dong, North Korea
• Jijiga, Ethiopia
• Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan

In new street additions, Utsunomiya built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Uvira fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Jakdo-dong built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. For the full network, Utsunomiya and Uvira both became progressively more disconnected, while Jakdo-dong grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Utsunomiya and Uvira have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.