Bedford in context: Street-network sprawl trends
Bedford in context
The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Bedford plotted against England and United Kingdom. The SNDi of new construction in Bedford rose steadily, compared to England which peaked in 1991-2005 and United Kingdom which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Bedford's incremental SNDi rose from 4.34 to 5.26 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Bedford ranked 41st out of 124 cities in England and 48th out of 143 in United Kingdom as of 2020.
New Street Additions (2006–2020)
- SNDi value
- 5.26
- Rank in United Kingdom
- 113th of 143
- Rank in England
- 100th of 124
Entire Network (Aggregate)
- SNDi value
- 3.37
- Rank in United Kingdom
- 48th of 143
- Rank in England
- 41st of 124
Rankings go from most connected to most disconnected — rank 1 is the most connected.
What about similarly populated cities?
- Nuomuhuicun, China
- Shahin Shahr, Iran
- Jalal-Abad, Kyrgyzstan
- Chiang Rai, Thailand
- Kuala Kapuas, Indonesia
- Qardho, Somalia
In new street additions, Bedford and Chiang Rai both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Nuomuhuicun fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Bedford and Chiang Rai both became progressively more disconnected, while Nuomuhuicun fluctuated in connectivity. Bedford and Nuomuhuicun have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.