---
title: "Introduction"
url: "https://commonwaysystem.org/guide/"
description: "Where to start in the Commonway System guide, deciding which pattern fits your street and how to move it through the local approval process."
updated: "2026-09-03"
---

# Introduction

## Where to start

The Guide is where you start **when you have a problem**, not a curiosity.

**If you already know what you are after**, like a Local Alley or a Turbo-Roundabout, go to [Patterns](https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns.md) and look it up.

**If you're trying to figure out** why the street outside your house feels dangerous, what it's supposed to be called, or how to actually get something changed, **start here**.

## What is in this guide?

The Patterns section describes what a good street looks like. **This Guide is for deciding what to do about the street you've got.** Use this guide to determine which pattern fits your situation, and how to move it through the process that actually builds or changes a street.

### Learn how streets actually get built

That second part, the part where a plan turns into pavement, runs through your local government: whoever authorizes the change, approves the budget, and schedules the work. Most people never learn how that works, which is a large part of why streets that everyone agrees are unsafe can sit unfixed for years. The Guide is meant to close that gap, in plain language.

## This section is built in three parts:

-   **[Foundations](https://commonwaysystem.org/guide/how-to-read-a-pattern.md)** — the vocabulary and classification system used throughout the rest of the Commonway System. Start here if terms like Functional Classification, Street Typology, or pattern scale are new to you.
-   **[Find Your Pattern](https://commonwaysystem.org/guide/find-your-pattern.md)** — a short diagnostic that turns a plain description of a street into the pattern that fits it.
-   **[Make It Happen](https://commonwaysystem.org/guide/make-it-happen.md)** — a walkthrough of how local road decisions actually get made, who to ask, and how to push one forward.