Blackpool 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 Blackpool plotted against England and United Kingdom. The SNDi of new construction in Blackpool rose steadily, compared to England which peaked in 1991-2005 and United Kingdom which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Blackpool's incremental SNDi rose from 5.72 to 6.2 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Blackpool ranked 28th out of 124 cities in England and 34th out of 143 in United Kingdom as of 2020.

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

What about similarly populated cities?

• Tarija, Bolivia
• Funtua, Nigeria
• Ploiești, Romania
• Darauli, India
• Naugachia, India
• Sambrial, Pakistan

In new street additions, Blackpool built increasingly disconnected streets over time, while Tarija built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved and Darauli fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Blackpool became progressively more disconnected, while Tarija grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved and Darauli fluctuated in connectivity. Blackpool and Tarija have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.