Amsterdam in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Amsterdam in context

22.22.42.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
22.22.42.6<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
AmsterdamNoord-Holland (Region)Netherlands (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Amsterdam plotted against Noord-Holland and Netherlands. The SNDi of new construction in Amsterdam rose steadily, compared to Noord-Holland which rose steadily and Netherlands which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Amsterdam's incremental SNDi rose from 2.45 to 2.64 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Amsterdam ranked 6th out of 9 cities in Noord-Holland and 33rd out of 43 in Netherlands as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.64
Rank in Netherlands
34th of 43
Rank in Noord-Holland
7th of 9

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
2.15
Rank in Netherlands
33rd of 43
Rank in Noord-Holland
6th of 9

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

What about similarly populated cities?

2.12.83.54.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
2.12.83.54.2<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
AmsterdamTiruppurKigali

Amsterdam, Tiruppur, and Kigali all built increasingly disconnected streets over time in new street construction. The same pattern holds for the full street network. Amsterdam and Tiruppur have been growing further apart in their street-network character since 1975.