---
title: "Ring Roads (17)"
created: 2026-07-01
updated: 2026-07-01
type: concept
status: compiled
namespace: pattern-language
pattern_number: 17
pattern_name: "Ring Roads"
source_repository: https://github.com/zenodotus280/apl-md
source_url: https://github.com/zenodotus280/apl-md/blob/master/Patterns/Ring%20Roads%20%2817%29.md
license_note: Non-commercial reuse with attribution; see namespace README and source LICENSE.md.
related_patterns:
  - "Local Transport Areas (11)"
  - "Interchange (34)"
  - "Web of Public Transport (16)"
  - "Subculture Boundary (13)"
  - "Access to Water (25)"
  - "Industrial Ribbon (42)"
  - "Shielded Parking (97)"
---

# Ring Roads (17)

> Source pattern from the abridged `apl-md` corpus. Use as a design reference and constraint seed; do not treat as commercial-clean training data.

### Problem
>It is not possible to avoid the need for high-speed roads in modern society; but it is essential to place them and build them in such a way that they do not destroy communities or countryside.

### Solution
>Place high-speed roads (freeways and other major arteries) so that:
>1. At least one high-speed road lies tangent to each local transport area.
>2. Each local transport area has a least one side not bounded by a high-speed road, but directly open to the countryside.
>3. The road is always sunken, or shielded along its length by berms, or earth, or industrial buildings, to protect the nearby neighborhoods from noise.

### Related Patterns
... the ring roads which this pattern specifies, help to define and generate the [[Local Transport Areas (11)]]; if they are placed to make connections between [[Interchange (34)]]; they also help to form the [[Web of Public Transport (16)]].

Always place the high speed roads on boundaries between subcultures -- [[Subculture Boundary (13)]] and never along the waterfronts -- [[Access to Water (25)]]. Place industry and big parking garages next to the roads, and use them, whenever possible, as extra noise shields -- [[Industrial Ribbon (42)]], [[Shielded Parking (97)]] ...

---

> [!cite]- Alexander, Christopher. _A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction_. Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 96
> #APL/confidence/low
>
> #APL/Town-Patterns/Community-Networking