Bilbao in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Bilbao in context

22.533.54<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
22.533.54<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
BilbaoPais Vasco (Region)Spain (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Bilbao plotted against País Vasco and Spain. The SNDi of new construction in Bilbao rose steadily, compared to País Vasco which peaked in 1976-1990 and Spain which peaked in 1976-1990. Most recently, Bilbao's incremental SNDi rose from 3.31 to 3.82 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Bilbao ranked 3rd out of 3 cities in País Vasco and 74th out of 85 in Spain as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.82
Rank in Spain
74th of 85
Rank in País Vasco
2nd of 3

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.12
Rank in Spain
74th of 85
Rank in País Vasco
3rd of 3

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

What about similarly populated cities?

22.533.54<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
22.533.54<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
BilbaoClevelandZhenjiang

While Cleveland and Zhenjiang both built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, Bilbao built increasingly disconnected streets over time in new street additions. For the full network, Bilbao and Cleveland both became progressively more disconnected, while Zhenjiang became progressively more connected.