Port of Spain 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 Port of Spain plotted against Tunapuna/Piarco and Trinidad and Tobago. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Port of Spain's incremental SNDi fell from 8.81 to 7.35 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Port of Spain ranked 1st out of 1 cities in Tunapuna/Piarco and 2nd out of 3 in Trinidad and Tobago as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Meishan, China
• Jinhe, China
• Jombang, Indonesia
• Shangrao, China
• Roorkee, India
• Niigata, Japan

While Meishan and Shangrao both fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, Port of Spain built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved in new street additions. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend.