Hartlepool 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 Hartlepool plotted against England and United Kingdom. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Hartlepool's incremental SNDi fell from 6.2 to 5.87 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Hartlepool ranked 91st out of 124 cities in England and 102nd 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?

• Ratangarh, India
• Katsina Ala, Nigeria
• Ahuachapan, El Salvador
• Mahabubabad, India
• Handley, United States
• Angra dos Reis, Brazil

In new street additions, Hartlepool built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Ratangarh built increasingly connected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then shifted to more disconnected patterns and Mahabubabad built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full network, Hartlepool and Mahabubabad both became progressively more disconnected, while Ratangarh became more connected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then grew more sprawly from 1991-2005 onwards. Hartlepool and Ratangarh have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.