Winterthur in context: Street-network sprawl trends

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Winterthur plotted against Zürich and Switzerland. The SNDi of new construction in Winterthur peaked in 1991-2005, compared to Zürich which followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase and Switzerland which rose steadily. Most recently, Winterthur's incremental SNDi fell from 2.45 to 2.36 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Winterthur ranked 1st out of 2 cities in Zürich and 1st out of 17 in Switzerland as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Miyakonojo, Japan
• Putrajaya, Malaysia
• Đức Hòa, Vietnam
• Garoowe, Somalia
• Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland
• Ocumare del Tuy, Venezuela

In new street additions, Winterthur built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Miyakonojo fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Garoowe built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns. For the full network, Winterthur and Miyakonojo both became progressively more disconnected, while Garoowe became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Winterthur and Miyakonojo have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.