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The Street Design Manual is New York City’s resource on street design policies, principles, processes, and best practices. It aggregates a broad range of resources — from nationally recognized engineering and design guidelines and standards to federal, state, and local laws, rules, and regulations — to provide information on treatments that are allowed and encouraged on New York City streets.
Download a PDF of the Introduction for offline access to the Purpose and Applicability, Street Design Policy, and Background sections. Download a PDF of the Glossary and Appendices for offline access to the Resources section.
Purpose and Applicability
The Third Edition of the Street Design Manual renews the Manual’s status as a living document and reinforces its role as a critical resource for those working on projects in New York City’s public right-of-way. It provides both a thorough update to the guidance in previous iterations and a number of important additions: a new chapter on public programming in streets and public spaces; a host of new entries throughout the Process, Geometry, Furniture, and Landscape chapters; and substantially expanded coverage of several key topics, including bike lanes, inclusive design, and landscape selection and management.
Street Design Policy
Planning and designing streets in accordance with the goals and principles of this section will contribute to a consistent level of quality and functionality for New York City’s streets. Along with a project’s planning framework, the goals and principles should be used to resolve conflicting priorities for limited street space.
Background
The New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) first published the Street Design Manual in 2009 to facilitate design excellence, better communicate design policy and methods, and streamline project delivery. The document was part of a broader effort to transform the city’s streets from a network designed primarily for automobiles into one that supported safe and convenient travel using a diversity of modes.
Resources
The following are laws, rules, regulations, and design guidance documents that may be relevant to the design of streets.
How to Use This Website
An annotated screenshot of a standard page on the Street Design Manual website explains where to find different information and navigation options.
Download the Manual
Use this page to download a PDF of the print version of the manual, either in full or by individual chapter.