George Town in context: Street-network sprawl trends

George Town in context

34567<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
34567<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
George TownPulau Pinang (Region)Malaysia (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with George Town plotted against Pulau Pinang and Malaysia. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, George Town's incremental SNDi rose from 4.85 to 6.87 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, George Town ranked 1st out of 3 cities in Pulau Pinang and 13th out of 43 in Malaysia as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
6.87
Rank in Malaysia
38th of 43
Rank in Pulau Pinang
3rd of 3

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.85
Rank in Malaysia
13th of 43
Rank in Pulau Pinang
1st of 3

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

What about similarly populated cities?

34567<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
34567<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
George TownLilongweBahawalpur

George Town, Lilongwe, and Bahawalpur all built increasingly disconnected streets over time in new street construction. The same pattern holds for the full street network. George Town and Lilongwe have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.