Chester in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Chester in context

3.544.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
3.544.5<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
ChesterEngland (Region)United Kingdom (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Chester plotted against England and United Kingdom. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Chester's incremental SNDi fell from 4.71 to 3.93 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Chester ranked 68th out of 124 cities in England and 76th out of 143 in United Kingdom as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
3.93
Rank in United Kingdom
65th of 143
Rank in England
59th of 124

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.64
Rank in United Kingdom
76th of 143
Rank in England
68th of 124

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2468<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2468<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
ChesterMiassUdalguri

While Miass and Udalguri both built increasingly disconnected streets over time, Chester 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.