Lower Hutt in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Lower Hutt in context

3456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
3456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
Lower HuttWellington (Region)New Zealand (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Lower Hutt plotted against Wellington and New Zealand. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Lower Hutt's incremental SNDi fell from 5.77 to 3.61 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Lower Hutt ranked 2nd out of 2 cities in Wellington and 5th out of 9 in New Zealand as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.61
Rank in New Zealand
4th of 9
Rank in Wellington
1st of 2

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.32
Rank in New Zealand
5th of 9
Rank in Wellington
2nd of 2

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

What about similarly populated cities?

246<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
246<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
Lower HuttYeUgba

In new street additions, Lower Hutt built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Ye built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Ugba fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Lower Hutt and Ye both became progressively more disconnected, while Ugba fluctuated in connectivity. Notably, Lower Hutt had a more sprawly network than Ye in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.