Lausanne in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Lausanne in context

1.82.433.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.82.433.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
LausanneVaud (Region)Switzerland (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Lausanne plotted against Vaud and Switzerland. The SNDi of new construction in Lausanne peaked in 1991-2005, compared to Vaud which peaked in 1991-2005 and Switzerland which rose steadily. Most recently, Lausanne's incremental SNDi fell from 3.35 to 3.06 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Lausanne ranked 1st out of 2 cities in Vaud and 9th out of 17 in Switzerland as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.06
Rank in Switzerland
10th of 17
Rank in Vaud
1st of 2

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.1
Rank in Switzerland
9th of 17
Rank in Vaud
1st of 2

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2.12.83.54.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.12.83.54.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
LausannePollachiLaizhou

In new street additions, Lausanne built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Pollachi fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Laizhou built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Lausanne and Pollachi have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.