Bristol in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Bristol in context

33.64.24.8<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
33.64.24.8<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
BristolEngland (Region)United Kingdom (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Bristol plotted against England and United Kingdom. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Bristol's incremental SNDi fell from 3.86 to 3.15 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Bristol ranked 7th out of 124 cities in England and 9th out of 143 in United Kingdom as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.15
Rank in United Kingdom
18th of 143
Rank in England
15th of 124

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.89
Rank in United Kingdom
9th of 143
Rank in England
7th of 124

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2.43.244.8<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.43.244.8<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
BristolXinyuSitapur

In new street additions, Bristol built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Xinyu fluctuated in its street-construction patterns and Sitapur built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full network, Bristol and Sitapur both became progressively more disconnected, while Xinyu grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. Bristol and Xinyu have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.