Cambridge 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 Cambridge plotted against England and United Kingdom. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Cambridge's incremental SNDi fell from 4.17 to 2.94 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Cambridge ranked 10th out of 124 cities in England and 12th 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?

• Jamui, India
• Zhili, China
• Dhekiajuli, India
• Baran, India
• Rason, North Korea
• Banfora, Burkina Faso

In new street additions, Cambridge built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Jamui built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Baran built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved. For the full network, Cambridge and Baran both grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Jamui became progressively more disconnected. Cambridge and Jamui have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.