Media Gallery
External videos, podcasts, and articles related to Commonway System content: real examples, explainers, interviews, and news coverage from outside the guidebook. Each item's blurb explains how it relates to CS content, not a neutral summary of the item itself, and its endorsement label says whether CS agrees with it, includes it for background only, or includes it as a counterexample.
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21 of 21 media items
The Key to Slowing Traffic is Street Design, Not Speed Limits
Makes the case, with side-by-side street photos, that a posted number on a sign does not change driver behavior the way lane width, block length, and sightlines do, the same self-enforcing-design principle behind CS's own design-speed-equals-posted-speed rule.
The Dutch Solution for Safer Sidewalks - Continuous Sidewalks
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.
The Reason Our Streets Switched to Cul-De-Sacs
Traces the postwar shift from connected grid networks to tree-shaped cul-de-sac subdivisions, then covers the same shared-use-path connector strategy CS's Network Reconnection retrofit recommends for stitching disconnected cul-de-sacs back into the surrounding network.
Why do so many U.S. cities have gridded streets?
Traces how the grid became the default American street pattern, from William Penn's Philadelphia through Jefferson's Midwest land ordinances, historical background for why the Grid network topology pattern is so dominant in U.S. contexts.
Are Streets Too Complicated Now?
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.
Dutch-style intersection design: bike-friendly
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.
Why Aren't Dangerous Drivers Punished?
Traces why traffic law rarely punishes road violence proportionally, then makes the case CS already builds on: infrastructure should be designed so mistakes aren't fatal, rather than relying on punishment after the fact.
You've Been Lied To About Roads For 60 Years
Covers "junk roads," traffic-model incentives to overbuild, and the trillion-dollar cost of designing roads around growth projections that the roads themselves inflate.
More Lanes Are (Still) A Bad Thing
Lays out induced demand, Braess's Paradox, and traffic evaporation with real case studies (LA 405, Houston Katy Freeway, Cheonggyecheon), then shows the Dutch one-lane-plus-transit cross-section as the actual fix.
Why Amsterdam is Removing 10,000 Parking Spaces
Documents Amsterdam's on-street parking reduction through permit attrition and street redesigns, including the tradeoff of a large replacement garage inducing more driving nearby.
Why the Dutch Wait Less at Traffic Lights
Breaks down Dutch traffic-responsive signal timing, independent phasing, transit signal priority, and no-right-turn-on-red as a pedestrian/cyclist safety measure.
Stroads are Ugly, Expensive, and Dangerous
The definitive explainer on stroads, and lays out the Dutch three-tier road/street classification system that CS's own Functional Classification structure closely mirrors.
Can we make cities car free?
Covers Oslo's parking-elimination approach, Barcelona's superblocks, and Houten's ring-road-with-car-free-interior model, each a different route to the same modal-filtering goal.
Why America Won't Copy Sweden's Cheap Highway Fix
Explains Sweden's 2+1 alternating-passing-lane cable-barrier retrofit and the specific AASHTO Green Book barriers (literally) that have kept the same fix from scaling in the US.
America Built the Wrong Roundabout (The Dutch Didn't)
Traces the turbo roundabout's origin and safety data, but also reports the Fietsersbond's documented cyclist/pedestrian crossing hazards at turbo roundabouts directly, worth noting since it complicates a clean "aligned" label.
Are Roundabouts Actually Better Than Traffic Lights?
A real head-to-head test (Carmel, IN) backing the case for roundabouts on time, fuel efficiency, and crash severity, while being upfront about roundabouts' accessibility gap for blind pedestrians.
This is the key to safer streets
A full traffic-calming toolkit walkthrough, plastic mini-roundabouts, curb extensions, chicanes, the speed bump/hump/cushion/table family, and a Cincinnati road-diet case study with dramatic before/after crash data.
What is the "Correct" Speed Limit?
Makes the physics and data case for 30 km/h (roughly 20 mph) as the safe default urban speed, the same logic behind CS's own Local street speed cap.
South Carolina's Freeway for Bikes
The Swamp Rabbit Trail's rail-to-trail history and its treatment as genuine transportation infrastructure, plus the Travelers Rest Main Street road diet that reallocated car lanes to parking and bike parking.
Roads don't have to be FAT to be FAST
Explains the interrupted-flow/platooning physics behind signalized-arterial congestion, then covers Carmel's Keystone Parkway conversion to a limited-access road using compact elevated roundabout interchanges instead of a full diamond interchange.
Let's FIX the HIGH SCHOOL (with 152 ROUNDABOUTS!)
The origin story of Carmel's roundabout program, starting with a contentious school-zone traffic-calming project, and the engineering fix (tightened entries, fatter center island) that made the design work.