Luton 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 Luton plotted against England and United Kingdom. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Luton's incremental SNDi fell from 5.31 to 3.5 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Luton ranked 71st out of 124 cities in England and 79th 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?

• Pare, Indonesia
• Suining, China
• Mawlamyine, Myanmar
• Uttar Chandipur, India
• Pingdu, China
• Kaiyuan, China

In new street additions, Luton built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Pare built increasingly disconnected streets over time and Uttar Chandipur fluctuated in its street-construction patterns. For the full network, Luton grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Pare became progressively more disconnected and Uttar Chandipur fluctuated in connectivity. Notably, Luton had a more sprawly network than Pare in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.