--- title: "Default (Standard Collector)" url: "https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns/collectors/default/" id: "COL-DEF-01" description: "The baseline Collector street typology, carrying the base modal hierarchy and 30 mph standard speed with no named override." updated: "2026-09-25" --- # Default (Standard Collector) `COL-DEF-01` Recommended Collector Default (Standard Collector) The baseline Collector street. No special land use, freight function, or dedicated mode gives it a name of its own, so it carries the base Collector modal hierarchy and speed rule unmodified. ## Related Media The items below come from outside the Commonway System, external videos, podcasts, and articles related to this page's topic, not part of the guidebook itself. Aligned ### [The Dutch Solution for Safer Sidewalks - Continuous Sidewalks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OfBpQgLXUc) Not Just Bikes Shows the same sidewalk-continuity concept behind Continuous Sidewalk / Raised Junction in practice: the roadway rises to meet the sidewalk at a crossing, rather than the sidewalk dropping to meet the road, so geometry itself signals the priority shift. Aligned ### [Are Streets Too Complicated Now?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1Xs5EA5_uU) City Beautiful Asks whether today's proliferation of lines, signals, and lane types on streets is overcomplication or a needed response to modern demands, a question that runs directly through CS's Element-scale catalog and the density-tiered Corridor retrofit paths this video is tagged to. Aligned ### [Dutch-style intersection design: bike-friendly](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCzi1Q4xCTA) BicycleDutch Shows the protected-intersection design vocabulary, continuous cycle tracks, corner refuge islands, separated signal phasing, that underpins CS's Protected Intersection pattern and the Corridor retrofit paths built around it. Typical at: Suburban Compact Urban Core Rural is an edge case. Undeveloped is an unlikely pairing. ## Speed and modal hierarchy Design speed & speed limit \[SPEED LIMIT 30\] \[SPEED LIMIT 35\] 30 mph standard. 35 mph is permitted only with rigid crash-protective separation, a concrete barrier rather than delineator posts, following FHWA's own distinction between the two.[1] Modal hierarchy Pedestrian > Bicycle > Transit > Vehicle > Freight Modal hierarchy follows the Collector base order, the same shape as Local. The higher speed tier loosens the practical design treatment, crossing spacing and separation, without changing the rank order. ## Layered guidance across sources The Commonway System column comes first: it is the answer. The four columns after it show the layered sources it was built from, from the federal and state baseline through NACTO, Complete Streets, and Dutch practice. The number-of-lanes and on-street-parking rows are a first pass, less fully resolved than the others. Collector street design guidance by source, from federal and state baseline through the Commonway System answer ### Travel lane width #### Commonway System **10 ft lanes.** 10 ft. The federal range is a binding mandate, so nothing below 10 ft is legally available. NACTO's 10 ft sits at the safe end of that mandated range, so it is simultaneously the floor and the best available option. #### Federal / State baseline **10 to 12 ft range.** 10 to 12 ft, the AASHTO Green Book's Collector range.[2] #### NACTO enhancement **10 ft urban, avoid over 11.** 10 ft recommended in urban contexts; lanes over 11 ft discouraged.[3] #### Complete Streets layer **Narrower lanes.** Narrower travel lanes listed as a typical element.[4] #### Dutch / Sustainable Safety **Not regulated separately.** Not a separately regulated dimension. Folded into overall speed-and-separation design instead. ### Number of travel lanes #### Commonway System **Two lanes, one each way.** Two lanes, one per direction, as the standard cross-section. Additional lanes are a documented exception requiring a stated volume threshold, not a default. Unmatched lane capacity without matching access control is exactly the failure mode [Stroad](https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns/arterials/stroad.md) describes. #### Federal / State baseline **Set by volume and level of service.** AASHTO's Green Book bases lane count on projected traffic volume and level-of-service analysis rather than fixing one number, in the same Collector chapter that sets the lane-width range.[2] Needs verification: that source was read for width guidance, not confirmed for lane-count methodology. #### NACTO enhancement **Favors narrower over more lanes.** Favors narrower lanes over more of them.[3] Open gap: NACTO's position on lane count itself was not separately sourced. #### Complete Streets layer **Not specified.** Not specified in the typical-elements list.[4] #### Dutch / Sustainable Safety **Typically 2×1 to 2×2 lanes.** Dutch distributor roads, the closest functional peer, typically run 2×1 to 2×2 lanes. See the [CROW comparison table](https://commonwaysystem.org/guide/street-types.md#for-readers-coming-from-dutch-crow-practice). ### Bicycle facility #### Commonway System **Protected bike lane.** Protected bike lane / cycle track, not merely buffered. This page's own Collector speed rule runs 30 to 35 mph, above the Dutch mixing threshold, so NACTO's enhanced recommendation is not optional here. It is what the speed rule already requires for internal consistency. #### Federal / State baseline **Not mandated; FHWA guide applies.** Not mandated by default. FHWA's Separated Bike Lane Planning and Design Guide is the federal design reference for when one is provided.[1] #### NACTO enhancement **Protected over painted.** Protected bike lane / cycle track recommended over a painted lane.[5] #### Complete Streets layer **Bike lanes or wide shoulders.** Bicycle lanes or wide paved shoulders listed as a typical element.[4] #### Dutch / Sustainable Safety **Separate above 30 km/h.** Physical separation required above a 30 km/h (about 19 mph) design speed. Cycle tracks measured 50 to 60% fewer bicycle crashes than painted lanes or mixed traffic on comparable roads.[6] ### Pedestrian facility #### Commonway System **Sidewalks both sides, NACTO widths.** Sidewalk required on both sides, sized to NACTO's range, not PROWAG's floor. PROWAG's 4 ft is an accessibility minimum, not a comfort or capacity target, so it is the legal floor here, not the design target. #### Federal / State baseline **4 ft minimum, sidewalk not required.** PROWAG requires a 4 ft minimum clear pedestrian access route where a sidewalk exists, 5 ft at medians and refuge islands, but does not require that a sidewalk be built in the first place.[7] #### NACTO enhancement **5 to 7 ft residential, 8 to 12 ft downtown.** Pedestrian through zone of 5 to 7 ft in residential settings, 8 to 12 ft in downtown and commercial areas.[8] #### Complete Streets layer **Sidewalks always included.** Sidewalks listed as the first typical element, on the premise a street is not complete without one.[4] #### Dutch / Sustainable Safety **Separate above 30 km/h.** Follows the same 30 km/h separation logic as the bicycle row above.[6] ### Speed management #### Commonway System **30 mph; 35 only with rigid barrier.** 30 mph standard, 35 mph only with rigid crash-protective separation, as locked in [Speed and modal hierarchy](https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns/collectors/default.md#speed-and-modal-hierarchy) above. 35 mph sits well above the Dutch 30 km/h threshold, so that rigid-separation requirement is functionally the Dutch safety principle already built into this page's speed rule, just never labeled that way before. #### Federal / State baseline **Set from 85th-percentile speed.** Traditionally set from the 85th-percentile observed speed.[12] #### NACTO enhancement **Narrower lanes calm traffic.** Narrower lanes as the primary calming lever, same source as the lane-width row.[3] #### Complete Streets layer **Narrow lanes, curb extensions, roundabouts.** Narrower lanes, curb extensions, and roundabouts listed as typical calming elements.[4] #### Dutch / Sustainable Safety **Separate above 30 km/h.** 30 km/h (about 19 mph) is the explicit threshold above which separation, not just marking, is required.[9] ### Intersection treatment #### Commonway System **Roundabout first; raised junction at Local streets.** Depends on what the Collector meets. Collector to Local: [Continuous Sidewalk / Raised Junction](https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns/intersections/continuous-sidewalk.md). Collector to Collector: [Roundabout](https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns/intersections/roundabout.md). Collector to Arterial: prefer [Roundabout](https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns/intersections/roundabout.md), falling back to [Protected Intersection](https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns/intersections/protected-intersection.md) or, only when neither works, [Signal](https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns/intersections/signal.md). A Collector connecting directly to a Freeway gets no treatment, since that combination should not occur in this publication's network hierarchy. #### Federal / State baseline **Roundabouts favored over signals.** FHWA identifies roundabouts as a Proven Safety Countermeasure, a 37 to 90% reduction across collision types depending on severity, and recommends considering them ahead of signals on federally funded projects.[10] MUTCD's signal-warrant standard supports the same choice: an engineering study is required before installing a signal, and satisfying a warrant does not by itself require installing one.[14] A jurisdiction that meets a warrant and still chooses a roundabout is acting inside federal doctrine, not deviating from it. #### NACTO enhancement **Depends on what the street meets.** Two different answers depending on what meets the Collector. Collector to Local: "gateway" treatments, curb extensions, raised crossings, and tight curb radii mark the transition.[15] Collector to Collector or Arterial: geometry, signal timing, and pedestrian islands are weighed against each other rather than one control type being endorsed.[16] NACTO does not take FHWA's explicit "prefer roundabouts" position. Its Traffic Circle treatment is scoped to small, uncontrolled minor intersections for calming, not a substitute for a multi-lane roundabout at a major intersection.[17] #### Complete Streets layer **Roundabouts and curb extensions.** Roundabouts and curb extensions listed as typical elements.[4] #### Dutch / Sustainable Safety **Raised intersections.** Raised intersections. See [Continuous Sidewalk / Raised Junction](https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns/intersections/continuous-sidewalk.md), which documents the concept with its own citations. ### Separation / buffer between modes #### Commonway System **Rigid barrier: no minimum. Otherwise 3 ft.** Where a rigid crash-protective barrier separates bicycles from the car lanes, no minimum buffer width is required. Where there is no such barrier, use NACTO's 3 ft parking-adjacent minimum, which clears the door-swing zone. The barrier does the separating job the buffer would otherwise do, and NACTO's number is the best-sourced answer for the case without one.[5] #### Federal / State baseline **Buffers permitted, no minimum width.** MUTCD permits buffered preferential lane markings but sets no minimum buffer width itself.[11] #### NACTO enhancement **2 ft minimum, 3 ft beside parking.** 2 ft minimum buffer, wider preferred. 3 ft minimum adjacent to on-street parking, to clear the door-swing zone.[5] #### Complete Streets layer **Not specified.** Not separately specified. Folded into the general infrastructure list.[4] #### Dutch / Sustainable Safety **Full separation, not paint.** Not a separate step. Once a street crosses the 30 km/h threshold, Dutch practice moves straight to full physical separation rather than a painted buffer.[6] ### On-street parking #### Commonway System **Optional; 8 ft if provided.** Optional and context-dependent, not a required element. Where provided, use AASHTO's 8 ft desirable width rather than the 7 ft minimum, since the extra width also protects the door-swing zone the bicycle-facility answer depends on. #### Federal / State baseline **7 ft minimum, 8 ft desirable.** Most vehicles park 6 to 12 inches from the curb and occupy roughly 7 ft. The Green Book recommends a 7 ft minimum on urban streets and 8 ft as the desirable width where parking is provided.[13] #### NACTO enhancement **Not yet sourced.** Open gap: not independently sourced. #### Complete Streets layer **Not treated as essential.** Absent from the typical-elements list. On-street parking is not treated as a completeness requirement the way sidewalks and bike facilities are.[4] #### Dutch / Sustainable Safety **None on distributor roads.** Not separately cited. A distributor-class road carries no direct property access by design, which excludes on-street parking from the through carriageway itself. Parking belongs on the local access streets Dutch classification keeps separate. ### Property access #### Commonway System **One driveway per block face, shared where possible.** Minimal, consolidated access, not zero access. No more than one driveway per block face, with shared or cross-access driveways used instead of new individual ones wherever multiple parcels front the same block. A block-face count rather than a fixed distance scales to whatever the local block length already is, so it stays a usable target in a tight urban grid and a long suburban block alike, without this page inventing a distance that would only fit some jurisdictions. The Arterial sibling, [Default (No Parking, No Direct Property Access)](https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns/arterials/default.md), already draws the hard line at zero. A Collector's answer sits between that zero and a Local street's assumption of open frontage access: restrictive, but not absolute. #### Federal / State baseline **No single number; crash reduction proven.** No single federal number. Driveway spacing follows the Transportation Research Board's Access Management Manual methodology, which ties spacing to speed and volume rather than fixing one distance, and states and localities adopt their own numbers from it. What is concrete and federal: FHWA designates Corridor Access Management, reducing driveway density along a roadway, as a Proven Safety Countermeasure, with a documented 25 to 31% reduction in fatal and injury crashes on urban and suburban arterials and a measurable benefit on two-lane roads as well.[18] #### NACTO enhancement **Limit driveways; one per block face at most.** The Minneapolis Street Design Guide, built directly on NACTO's framework, is explicit: new driveways should be limited to locations without alley or cross-street access in the first place, and where one is unavoidable, no more than one curb cut per block face, sited midblock.[19] #### Complete Streets layer **Not specified.** Absent from the typical-elements list. Property access is not treated as a completeness requirement.[4] #### Dutch / Sustainable Safety **No direct property access on distributor roads.** Distributor roads, the Dutch functional peer to a Collector, carry no direct property access at all. It is a defining structural rule of the classification, not a discouraged practice. See the [CROW comparison table](https://commonwaysystem.org/guide/street-types.md#for-readers-coming-from-dutch-crow-practice). ## Design notes This entry is the standard against which every other Collector Typology is defined as an override, the same role Default plays within Local. ## Related patterns [Default (Standard Local Street)](https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns/local-streets/default.md) (LOC-DEF-01) and [Default (No Parking, No Direct Property Access)](https://commonwaysystem.org/patterns/arterials/default.md) (ART-DEF-01) (the equivalent baseline reference point one Functional Classification down and up, completing the three-tier chain) ## Getting there: Retrofit path options [Four-to-three lane road diet](https://commonwaysystem.org/retrofits/corridor/four-to-three-lane-road-diet.md) (RFT-CDR-01), [Lane diet](https://commonwaysystem.org/retrofits/corridor/lane-diet.md) (RFT-CDR-03), [Protected bike lane retrofit via lane-width reallocation](https://commonwaysystem.org/retrofits/corridor/protected-bike-lane-width-reallocation.md) (RFT-CDR-07), [Protected bike lane retrofit via parking reduction](https://commonwaysystem.org/retrofits/corridor/protected-bike-lane-parking-reduction.md) (RFT-CDR-09) ## References 1. Legal / regulatory [FHWA, _Separated Bike Lane Planning and Design Guide_.](https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bicycle_pedestrian/publications/separated_bikelane_pdg/page00.cfm) 2. Legal / regulatory [AASHTO, _A Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets_ ("Green Book"), Collector lane width range, as summarized in Washington State DOT's own AASHTO-comparison reference.](https://wsdot.wa.gov/publications/fulltext/ProjectDev/ProjectSummary/Compare_AASHTO-08.pdf) 3. Precedent-based [NACTO, "Lane Width," _Urban Street Design Guide_.](https://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/street-design-elements/lane-width/) 4. Precedent-based [Smart Growth America, National Complete Streets Coalition, "About" page, typical Complete Street elements.](https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/programs-and-coalitions/national-complete-streets-coalition/about/) 5. Precedent-based [NACTO, "Designing Protected Bike Lanes," _Urban Bikeway Design Guide_.](https://nacto.org/publication/urban-bikeway-design-guide/designing-bikeways-for-all-ages-and-abilities/protected-bike-lanes/designing-protected-bike-lanes/) 6. Evidence-based [J.W.H. van Petegem, P. Schepers & G.J. Wijlhuizen, "The safety of physically separated cycle tracks compared to marked cycle lanes and mixed traffic conditions in Amsterdam," SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research / TU Delft, _European Journal of Transport and Infrastructure Research_ 21(3), 2021.](https://journals.open.tudelft.nl/ejtir/article/download/5283/5126) 7. Legal / regulatory [U.S. Access Board, PROWAG Chapter R3, Technical Requirements, pedestrian access route width.](https://www.access-board.gov/prowag/proposed/chapter-r3-technical-requirements/) 8. Precedent-based [NACTO, "Sidewalk Zones," _Urban Street Design Guide_.](https://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/street-design-elements/sidewalks/sidewalk-zones/) 9. Evidence-based [TU Delft, _European Journal of Transport and Infrastructure Research_, Dutch road classification table (access/distributor/through roads, speed limits, and cyclist placement by class).](https://journals.open.tudelft.nl/ejtir/article/download/3000/3187/8330) 10. Legal / regulatory [FHWA, "Roundabouts," CSS Design Tactics, Office of Planning, Environment, & Realty.](https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/css/design/tactics/chap23.cfm) 11. Legal / regulatory [MUTCD 11th Edition with Revision 1 (FHWA, December 2025; effective March 5, 2026), Chapter 3D, Section 3D.01, buffered preferential lane markings.](https://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/pdfs/11th_Editionr1/mutcd11theditionr1hl.pdf) 12. Legal / regulatory [Federal Highway Administration. "Relationship Between Design Speed, Operating Speed, and Posted Speed."](https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/css/resources/speed) 13. Legal / regulatory [AASHTO, _A Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets_ ("Green Book"), on-street parking lane width, as quoted directly in a NACTO-hosted research citation.](https://nacto.org/wp-content/uploads/Part-III-Section-2-Citation-16_-Furth-and-Dulaski.pdf) 14. Legal / regulatory [MUTCD 11th Edition with Revision 1 (FHWA, December 2025; effective March 5, 2026), Chapter 4C, Section 4C.01, traffic signal needs studies. An engineering study and warrant analysis are required, but satisfying a warrant does not itself require installing a signal.](https://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/pdfs/11th_Editionr1/mutcd11theditionr1hl.pdf) 15. Precedent-based [NACTO, "Intersections of Major and Minor Streets," _Urban Street Design Guide_.](https://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/intersections/intersections-of-major-and-minor-streets/) 16. Precedent-based [NACTO, "Major Intersections," _Urban Street Design Guide_.](https://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/intersections/major-intersections/) 17. Precedent-based [NACTO, "Traffic Circle," _Urban Street Design Guide_.](https://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/intersections/traffic-circle/) 18. Legal / regulatory [Federal Highway Administration, "Corridor Access Management," Proven Safety Countermeasures.](https://highways.dot.gov/sites/fhwa.dot.gov/files/2022-06/12_Corridor%20Access%20Management_508.pdf) 19. Precedent-based [City of Minneapolis, Street Design Guide, "Driveways" section (Boulevards and Furnishings).](https://sdg.minneapolismn.gov/design-guidance/boulevards-and-furnishings/driveways)