Context Sensitive Design

The FHWA fully supports the concepts and principles that make-up Flexibility in Highway Design, now commonly referred to as "Context Sensitive Design" (CSD). The Office of Human Environment, in cooperation with the Office of Infrastructure, provides support for CSD in the following areas:

• Technical Assistance
• Development of Training
• Support of Pilot States and Outreach Efforts
• Workshop and Materials Development
• Developed and Distributes the "Flexibility in Highway Design" Publication

CSD provides community benefits as it seeks to:

• Incorporate feedback from the local populace affected by proposed transportation facilities
• Encourage collaboration between neighborhoods and local, state, and Federal public officials
• Enhance not only the roadway and transit communities, but the bicycle and pedestrian communities as well
• Assist in the development of strategies for smart growth
• Encourages assessments and design of alternatives consist with local needs, and
• Helps effectively merge of transportation, engineering, architectural, historical, and natural environmental issues and concerns into transportation decision making

CSD is a collaborative approach to developing and redesigning transportation facilities that fit into their physical and human environment while preserving the aesthetic, historic, community, and natural environmental values. CSD contributes to community, safety, and mobility.

In 1998, FHWA encouraged and fiscally supported five pilot states in their participation in the CSD process. The states are:

• Connecticut
• Kentucky
• Maryland
• Minnesota
• Utah

These states have gathered their state planners, engineers, architects, consultants, and program administrators, to provide internal training and sensitization to their DOT staffs and partners. They have developed workplans for internal training and are at varying stages in their efforts to develop outreach training activities for the remaining states in their AASHTO region. For more details and a summary of the status of the pilot efforts view the CSD website at the FHWA Eastern Resources Center.

Also see "A Hallmark of Context-Sensitive Design" by Steve Moler - An article in "Public Roads" Magazine, May/June, 2002 on the reconstruction of U.S. 93 through Montana's Flathead Indian Reservation.

Headquarters Contacts

Barbara Bauer
Office of Infrastructure
HIPA - 20, Room 3134
400 Seventh St., SW
Washington D.C. 20590
(202) 366-0733
barbara.bauer@dot.gov

Harold Peaks
HEPE - 10, Room 3222
400 Seventh St., SW
Washington D.C. 20590
(202) 366-1598
harold.peaks@dot.gov

R. Keith Moore
HEPE - 20, Room 3222
400 Seventh St., SW
Washington D.C. 20590
(202) 366-0524
keith.moore@dot.gov