Lae in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Lae in context

456789<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
456789<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
LaeMorobe (Region)Papua New Guinea (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Lae plotted against Morobe and Papua New Guinea. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Lae's incremental SNDi rose from 6.02 to 6.33 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Lae ranked 1st out of 1 cities in Morobe and 2nd out of 10 in Papua New Guinea as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
6.33
Rank in Papua New Guinea
3rd of 10
Rank in Morobe
1st of 1

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
4.65
Rank in Papua New Guinea
2nd of 10
Rank in Morobe
1st of 1

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2468<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2468<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
LaeMauranipurAl Kifl

In new street additions, Lae built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Mauranipur built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved and Al Kifl built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Lae became progressively more disconnected, while Mauranipur grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved and Al Kifl became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Notably, Lae had a more sprawly network than Mauranipur in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.