Taxila 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 Taxila plotted against Punjab and Pakistan. The SNDi of new construction in Taxila was at its lowest in 1991-2005, compared to Punjab which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and Pakistan which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase. Most recently, Taxila's incremental SNDi rose from 4.77 to 5.97 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Taxila ranked 129th out of 146 cities in Punjab and 229th out of 292 in Pakistan as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Norfolk, United States
• Londrina, Brazil
• Jiangyin, China
• Vapi, India
• Kingston, Jamaica
• Dhule, India

In new street additions, Taxila built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns, while Norfolk built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved and Vapi built increasingly disconnected streets over time. Looking at the full network, Norfolk and Vapi both became progressively more disconnected, while Taxila became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Taxila and Vapi have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.