Lead Organizations

American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials - The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials is composed of those Departments or Agencies of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia in which official highway responsibility for that State or Territory is lodged, and the United States Department of Transportation, which is an ex-officio member.

Federal Highway Administration - The Federal Highway Administration is a part of the Department of Transportation and is headquartered in Washington, DC, with field offices across the United States. The vision of FHWA is to create the best transportation system in the world for the American people through proactive leadership, innovation, and excellence in service.

In working towards that vision, one of the key strategies of FHWA's National Strategic Plan is to work with our partners to ensure that highway facilities balance local, regional, and national concerns with the natural environment and add value to the community. To that end, FHWA provides technical assistance to state DOT's in applying context-sensitive design concepts within their agencies. FHWA also provides for, assists with, and supports outreach and training efforts to promote context-sensitive design. In addition, FHWA's Federal Lands Highway office is participating as a "pilot state" in sharing expertise it has in designing and building highways in some of the most environmentally, scenically and culturally sensitive areas of the country. For further information, see the latest FHWA Report on their CSS Program Activities

Federal Highway Administrator Issues Memorandum on Context Sensitive Design: The Federal Highway Administration has been involved in and supportive of many efforts promoting the Context Sensitive Design (CSD) philosophy - publishing the booklet Flexibility in Highway Design, a sponsor of the 1998 Maryland Conference, the 2000 ASCE Reston Conference, the 2000 International Scanning tour, and the 2001 Missoula Conference to name a few; until now there has been no official written statement formally endorsing CSD. On January 24, 2002 Administrator Mary Peters signed a memorandum to the FHWA field managers in which she affirms FHWA's support and commitment to the context-sensitive design philosophy and asks all of us to work together toward initiating CSD concepts where they do not exist, and toward sustaining them where they do.

Transportation Research Board - The Transportation Research Board (TRB) is a unit of the National Research Council, a private, nonprofit institution that is the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. The Board's mission is to promote innovation and progress in transportation by stimulating and conducting research, facilitating the dissemination of information, and encouraging the implementation of research results.