Houten in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Houten in context

1.622.4<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
1.622.4<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
HoutenUtrecht (Region)Netherlands (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Houten plotted against Utrecht and Netherlands. The SNDi of new construction in Houten rose steadily, compared to Utrecht which peaked in 1976-1990 and Netherlands which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Houten's incremental SNDi rose from 1.64 to 1.68 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Houten ranked 1st out of 4 cities in Utrecht and 3rd out of 43 in Netherlands as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
1.68
Rank in Netherlands
4th of 43
Rank in Utrecht
1st of 4

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
1.58
Rank in Netherlands
3rd of 43
Rank in Utrecht
1st of 4

Rankings go from most connected to most disconnected — rank 1 is the most connected.

What about similarly populated cities?

08162432<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
08162432<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
HoutenBanissaAkyazi

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