Amsterdam street design standards

The City of Amsterdam has released its Red Book (Handboek Rood), with design standards for many details of street design. An accompanying publication is the Green Book with standards for street vegetation.

Red Book. Image credit: City of Amsterdam.

Context

Street design and detailing in the Netherlands has changed over time, as the city has learnt from early trials. The beauty is that Australia can learn from the Netherlands, and jump straight to their latest best-practice design.

Evolution of street profiles 1950-2000. Image credit: Amsterdam Red Book.

Details

The Red Book offers beautiful renders showing how the details of paving, edging and kerbing are to be implemented.

Example of a bicycle street. Image credit: Amsterdam Red Book.
Example of a tram street. Image credit: Amsterdam Red Book.
Example of a car street. Image credit: Amsterdam Red Book.
Example of an intersection between quiet neighbourhood streets. Image credit: Amsterdam Red Book.
Example of an intersection between car streets. Image credit: Amsterdam Red Book.

Street furniture

The Red Book also has sections with standards for a range of street furniture, including street lights, seats, rubbish bins, and bike parking.

Example of street furniture. Image credit: Amsterdam Red Book.

Conclusion

Amsterdam’s Red Book is a wonderful publication, showing other cities how to help deliver a beautiful, liveable and accessible city. Imagine if the M9 group of inner city councils in Melbourne collaborated to align on similar standards for street design and construction!

Published 17th February 2022