Coatbridge 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 Coatbridge plotted against Scotland and United Kingdom. All three follow the same trend in new construction, suggesting a shared regional pattern of development. Most recently, Coatbridge's incremental SNDi fell from 5.99 to 4.46 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Coatbridge ranked 8th out of 11 cities in Scotland and 109th 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?

• Ning'an, China
• Chester-le-Street, United Kingdom
• Dayu, China
• Dharamshala, India
• Bugulma, Russia
• Kirodimal Nagar, India

In new street additions, Coatbridge built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved, while Ning'an built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved and Dharamshala built increasingly disconnected streets over time. For the full street network, though, all three cities follow the same trend. Notably, Coatbridge had a more sprawly network than Ning'an in 1975 but the two have since reversed their relative ranking.