Commonway
Version V. 2026.09.26

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Default (Freeway)

FRE-DEF-01
Recommended Freeway

Default (Freeway)

A limited-access road with grade-separated interchanges and no direct property access. Freeway is intentionally out of the Commonway System's detailed design scope; no modal hierarchy or speed regulation applies within CS.1

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.

You've Been Lied To About Roads For 60 Years Aligned

You've Been Lied To About Roads For 60 Years

Global Cycling Network

Covers "junk roads," traffic-model incentives to overbuild, and the trillion-dollar cost of designing roads around growth projections that the roads themselves inflate.

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Typical at: Undeveloped Rural Suburban Compact

Urban is an edge case. Core is an unlikely pairing, marked unlikely rather than edge case on purpose: a limited-access road cutting through a Core-density area is the kind of pattern the Commonway System would flag for retrofit, not treat as a realistic design target.

#Design notes

Freeway entries are listed in the Commonway System for completeness and cross-reference, not as a detailed design guide the way Local, Collector, and Arterial patterns are. CS's scope is street and road design; Freeway-scale interchange and alignment design belongs to a different discipline.

Grade-Separated Interchange (INT-GSI-10) (the Intersection pattern governing where this pattern's design guidance resumes), Default (No Parking, No Direct Property Access) (ART-DEF-01) (the Arterial pattern a Freeway interchange typically connects into)

#References

  1. Legal / regulatory FHWA, Highway Functional Classification Concepts, Criteria and Procedures.(opens in new tab)

Suggest changes to this page (opens in new tab) Text-only version Last updated September 10, 2026

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