Tauranga 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 Tauranga plotted against Bay of Plenty and New Zealand. The SNDi of new construction in Tauranga peaked in 1976-1990, compared to Bay of Plenty which peaked in 1991-2005 and New Zealand which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Tauranga's incremental SNDi fell from 5.72 to 5.09 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Tauranga ranked 1st out of 1 cities in Bay of Plenty and 9th out of 9 in New Zealand as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Kribi, Cameroon
• Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir
• Matabhanga, India
• Chengcheng, China
• Unchahar, India
• El Vigía, Venezuela

In new street additions, Tauranga built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Kribi built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Chengcheng fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Tauranga and Kribi both became progressively more disconnected, while Chengcheng fluctuated in connectivity.