A collector road or distributor road is a low to moderate-capacity road which serves to move traffic from local streets to arterial roads. Unlike arterials, collectors are also designed to provide access to residential properties. Rarely, jurisdictions will differentiate major and minor collector roads, the former being wider, busier and more significant.
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Collector roads can vary widely in appearance. Some urban collectors are wide boulevards entering communities or connecting sections. Others are residential streets, which are typically wider than local roads, although few are wider than four lanes. Small-scale commercial areas can be found on collector roads in residential areas. Key community functions such as schools, churches and recreational facilities can often be found on collector roads.
The flow of a collector road usually consists of a mixture of signalled intersections or traffic circles with arterial roads; signals, circles or stop signs (often in the form of a four-way stop) with other collector roads, and; unsignalized intersections with local streets which favour traffic movement on the collector.
Speed limits are typically between 20 and 35 mph (or 30 to 55km/h) on collector roads in built-up areas, depending on the degree of development and frequency of local access, intersections and pedestrians, as well as the surrounding area (the speed tends to be lowest in a school zone). Traffic calming is occasionally used in older areas on collector roads as well.
Collector roads can originate in different ways: most often they have been planned along with the suburban layout and built especially for that purpose. Occasionally they can fill gaps in a grid system between arterial roads. Urban planners will often consider such roads when laying out new areas of development, as branch sections of utilities such as trunk sewers and water mains can be built through the same corridor.
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