Cape Town in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Cape Town in context

2.433.64.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.433.64.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
Cape TownWestern Cape (Region)South Africa (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Cape Town plotted against Western Cape and South Africa. The SNDi of new construction in Cape Town peaked in 1991-2005, compared to Western Cape which rose steadily and South Africa which rose steadily. Most recently, Cape Town's incremental SNDi fell from 3.95 to 3.65 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Cape Town ranked 3rd out of 14 cities in Western Cape and 27th out of 81 in South Africa as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.65
Rank in South Africa
41st of 81
Rank in Western Cape
5th of 14

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.92
Rank in South Africa
27th of 81
Rank in Western Cape
3rd of 14

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2.42.83.23.64<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.42.83.23.64<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
Cape TownQuanzhouChangsha

In new street additions, Cape Town and Changsha both built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Quanzhou fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Cape Town and Quanzhou both became progressively more disconnected, while Changsha grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Cape Town and Quanzhou have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.