The traditional development pattern refers to the approach to growth and development that humans used for thousands of years across different cultures, continents and latitudes. Pre-automobile cities, big and small, in countless societies, share an eerie similarity of design. Public spaces are built to a human scale, where a person on foot can feel comfortable and safe. Most of a person's day-to-day needs are accessible by walking. Finally, traditionally-developed towns and cities are built incrementally over time, rather than all at once to a finished state.

When we look back at the way prior human civilizations built their places, when we study the way they assembled their streets, designed and placed their buildings and phased their infrastructure, we can start to appreciate the wisdom embedded in this approach, understanding that it was developed over thousands of years of trial and error experimentation. This is why Strong Towns refers frequently to the "traditional development pattern." We are describing not just a physical form but an approach to growth and development that history has revealed to be resilient and financially productive.

Four key features of the traditional development pattern are the following:

1. Traditional development is remarkably consistent in its design across societies and continents.

Visit cities around the world that existed before the advent of the automobile, and you'll find a clear commonality in these and other urban design features:

Human-scaled design: Streets and public spaces provide a sense of enclosure, like an outdoor room, that makes people feel safe and comfortable. A space that is too expansive and imposing is uncomfortable to linger in.

Walkable distances: The prevailing transportation technology for most of human history was two legs, and so traditionally-developed cities are compact enough that many daily needs can be met on foot.

A fine-grained mix of uses: Homes and businesses are not strictly separated the way they are in many modern cities and suburbs. A common pattern found worldwide is a store on the first floor of a building, and an apartment upstairs in which the shopkeeper lives. This type of arrangement has persisted because it is cost-saving and flexible, and makes it easy to balance running a business with needs such as child care.

Notice how those three features appear over and over in the below slideshow of photos from around the world: