Preston 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 Preston plotted against England and United Kingdom. The SNDi of new construction in Preston followed a zig-zag trend with an overall increase, compared to England which peaked in 1991-2005 and United Kingdom which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Preston's incremental SNDi rose from 5.19 to 5.36 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Preston ranked 95th out of 124 cities in England and 106th 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?

• Gwagwalada, Nigeria
• Yudu, China
• Makiivka, Ukraine
• Ramgarh, India
• Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria
• Sawai Madhopur, India

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