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Default (Standard Local Street)

LOC-DEF-01
Recommended Local

Default (Standard Local Street)

The baseline Local street. No special access pattern, event use, or dedicated mode gives it a name of its own, so it carries the base Local modal hierarchy and speed rule unmodified. Every other Local Typology is defined as a departure from this one: a Typology earns its own name only when its entire reason for existing is a specific access pattern, a specific event use, or a specific mode.

Illustration

Type: Paired. Format: Segment / cross-section (~2.8:1).

Typical condition
Oversized suburban local cross-section: no planting buffer, a narrow or absent sidewalk, and an overly wide travel lane.
Commonway recommendation
Sidewalk 5 ft, planting/furnishing zone 5 ft (standard, not optional), shared two-way undivided travel lane 18 ft, sized to self-enforce 20 mph.1

Callouts

  1. (Physical) Sidewalk sized for comfortable two-way pedestrian travel.
  2. (Physical) Planting/furnishing zone buffering pedestrians from the travel lane.
  3. (Physical) Travel lane narrowed to self-enforce 20 mph.2

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

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?

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

What is the "Correct" Speed Limit?

Not Just Bikes

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.

Where this pattern applies

Typical at: Suburban Compact Urban Core

Rural is an edge case, not the norm. Farm and rural-residential contexts more often produce a Rural Collector / Farm-to-Market Road pattern instead, since a genuinely Local-scale street needs enough nearby development to serve. Undeveloped contexts are unlikely to carry a Local street at all, for the same reason.

Speed and modal hierarchy

Design speed & speed limit

[SPEED LIMIT 20]
20 mph hard maximum, no exceptions. This is not a target or an aspirational limit: under CS's self-enforcing roadway principle, design speed always equals posted speed, so the street's geometry itself has to make 20 mph the comfortable driving speed, not just the posted number.1

Modal hierarchy

Pedestrian> Bicycle> Transit> Vehicle> Freight
Modal hierarchy follows the Local base order without an override. This order follows directly from Local's access-priority role in the Functional Classification system, not from a judgment call specific to this Typology. A named Typology only reorders it when the Typology's whole purpose is a specific mode, for example Alley (Vehicle and Freight first, since the entire point is service and driveway access) or Bicycle Boulevard / Neighborhood Greenway (Bicycle first, since shared-street bicycle priority is the entire point).

Relationship to other Local Typologies

This entry is the reference point, not one option among equals. Reading the other eleven Local Typologies as departures from this baseline makes the whole set easier to hold in mind:

Where a Local street meets a bigger street

The default intersection treatment where this pattern meets a Collector is a Continuous Sidewalk / Raised Junction: the sidewalk and bike path stay uninterrupted, and the roadway ramps up to meet them rather than the reverse.

Design notes

This entry is the standard against which every other Local Typology is defined as an override. A Typology only departs from the base modal order when its entire reason for existing is a specific mode.

Continuous Sidewalk / Raised Junction (INT-CSJ-06) (this pattern's own default intersection treatment where it meets a Collector), Default (Standard Collector) (COL-DEF-01) (the equivalent baseline one Functional Classification up)

References

  1. Legal / regulatory FHWA, "Self-Enforcing Roadways: A Guidance Report," FHWA-HRT-17-098, 2018.
  2. Precedent-based National Association of City Transportation Officials, Urban Street Design Guide, "Street Design Principles: Lane Width."