Cancún 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 Cancún plotted against Quintana Roo and México. The SNDi of new construction in Cancún rose steadily, compared to Quintana Roo which rose steadily and México which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Cancún's incremental SNDi rose from 1.94 to 3.95 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Cancún ranked 3rd out of 4 cities in Quintana Roo and 73rd out of 182 in México as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Anand, India
• Jeonju, South Korea
• Bahraich, India
• Lu'an, China
• Mymensingh, Bangladesh
• Yamunanagar, India

In new street additions, Cancún and Anand both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Lu'an built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Cancún and Anand both became progressively more disconnected, while Lu'an became progressively more connected. Cancún and Lu'an have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.