Worcester 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 Worcester plotted against England and United Kingdom. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Worcester's incremental SNDi fell from 4.29 to 4.25 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Worcester ranked 73rd out of 124 cities in England and 81st 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?

• Wusheng, China
• Xiaolong, China
• Changtu, China
• Xinfeng, China
• Lintou, China
• Dong'an, China

While Wusheng and Xinfeng both fluctuated in its street-construction patterns, Worcester built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved in new street additions. For the full network, Worcester and Xinfeng both became progressively more disconnected, while Wusheng fluctuated in connectivity. Worcester and Wusheng have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.