This section provides an overview of CSS. What it is and how it can help to shape transportation projects around the country. Feel free to browse through the topics below or search for a particular page by entering a keyword in the search box below or clicking on "Advanced Search."
Design is both a process and a product. This section focuses on the product of CSS - visible results on streets and roads. That is what people and communities see and experience, whether it is a Main Street or a scenic rural road. CSS is creating new approaches to the flexible application of design controls and standards and more attention to pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit. Explore this section to also view case studies and examples of "flexible" design elements in practice around the U.S. and internationally.
Under Context Sensitive Solutions, new approaches are being developed to the application of criteria and standards so that streets and roads can better fit in their context.
CSS calls on transportation professionals to consider the needs of all road users--motor-vehicles, transit, as well as pedestrians and cyclists. Consideration of pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit requires special design features and elements be incorporated into the design of the facility.
Learn more about new directions in road design, and see examples of built CSS projects. Projects are cross-referenced by specific types of design features and elements.
Article / Paper / Report
Design Guidance for Great Streets: Addressing Context Sensitivity for Major Urban Streets
This paper presents the progress of a joint project of the Institute of Transportation Engineers
and the Congress for the New Urbanism. Together, the two organizations are working to prepare
guidance for context sensitive design of major urban streets, drawing on principles and
techniques from the new urbanist and smart growth movements. New urbanism is a movement
in planning, design and development that is re-establishing compact, walkable and
environmentally sustainable neighborhoods, cities and towns. Smart growth is an approach to
development and conservation that advocates, among other objectives, strengthening and
directing development toward existing communities and fostering distinctive and attractive
places. Streets that are both beautiful and functional -- great streets -- will advance the
objectives of both movements as well as the practice of context sensitive design.
In addition to addressing design criteria in the project's deliverables, CNU and ITE will be
working in three areas crucial to implementation of our principles at scales from the region to the
building: network design; understanding of context and community character; and revisions to
the functional class system. Work on these topics by a multidisciplinary group of CNU and ITE
member-practitioners is in its earliest stages. This paper introduces the project in its "project
history and overview" section and then presents findings of initial work on a literature review
being conducted as a project start-up task. The emphasis of the literature review is evaluation of
conventional and innovative street design resources to assess their contributions to the project's
aims.
--
Institute of Transportation Engineers
Congress for New Urbanism (CNU)
Presentation
Design Guidelines & Safety
This PowerPoint presentation from the Kentucky Transportation Center considers who and what to consider during the road-planning process. Lots of provocative pictures and diagrams.
--
Kentucky Transportation Center
Article / Paper / Report
Geometric Design Practices for European Roads
A properly designed roadway takes into consideration mobility and safety while
addressing natural and human environmental aspects. To achieve such a balance,
tradeoffs among these factors are needed and are routinely performed either
explicitly or implicitly. Recently, an emphasis has been placed on the existing
flexibility in design guidelines and the use of creative design in addressing the
site-specific project needs has been encouraged. This philosophy was coined in the
United States as context-sensitive design (CSD) and represents an approach in
which a balance is sought between safety and mobility needs within the community
interests. Both the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the American
Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) recognize the
flexibility that exists in the current design guidelines, while acknowledging that
the current focus on providing high levels of mobility may conflict with some
interests of the community. The use of
multi-disciplinary teams and public
involvement at the appropriate stages of
the project are also aspects that promote
the application of CSD. Research and
workshops have increased awareness
of CSD issues within the highway
community and encouraged a desire
to improve and enhance established
roadway design practices and address
elements of community interest.
--
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officals
Federal Highway Administration
Book
Flexibility in Highway Design
A guide about designing highways that incorporate community values and are safe, efficient, and effective. It is written for highway engineers and project managers who want to learn more about flexibility available to them when designing roads and illustrates successful approaches used in other highway projects. The guide aims also at provoking innovative thinking for fully considering the scenic, historic, aesthetic, and other cultural values of communities, along with safety and mobility needs.
--
Federal Highway Administration
Article / Paper / Report
Flexible Design of New Jersey's Main Streets
If the problem is defined as the need to move traffic quickly through a community, it will lead to one set of
design solutions. If the problem is defined as the need to preserve livability in the face of growing traffic, it
will lead to another set of design solutions. The innovative designs proposed by engineers during the New
Jersey Department of Transportation's (DOT's) Context-Sensitive Design Training Course show that
different problem definitions can lead to very different design solutions.
-- Reid Ewing, Michael King; Voorhes Transportation Policy Institute; Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy, Rutgers University
