Rustenburg in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Rustenburg in context

234567<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
234567<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
RustenburgNorth West (Region)South Africa (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Rustenburg plotted against North West and South Africa. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Rustenburg's incremental SNDi rose from 5.5 to 6.96 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Rustenburg ranked 9th out of 9 cities in North West and 71st out of 81 in South Africa as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
6.96
Rank in South Africa
75th of 81
Rank in North West
8th of 9

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
4.77
Rank in South Africa
71st of 81
Rank in North West
9th of 9

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
RustenburgCu ChiKoudougou

In new street additions, Rustenburg built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Củ Chi built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns and Koudougou fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Rustenburg and Koudougou both became progressively more disconnected, while Củ Chi became more connected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then grew more sprawly from 1976-1990 onwards. Notably, Rustenburg had a more connected network than Củ Chi in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.