The following organizations offer training courses in Context Sensitive Solutions. If you would like to add your organization to this list, or if you would like to update your organization's information, please email us.

American Planning Association (APA)

National Duration: n/a Website: www.planning.org/bookservice/description.htm?BCODE=TCSD

"This CD-ROM highlights promising new planning approaches such as transit oriented design, traditional neighborhood developments, and traffic calming that are reshaping central cities and suburbs. It includes audio recording synchronized with PowerPoint presentation, program transcript, PowerPoint presentation note sheets, and supplemental reading materials."

Contact:

American Planning Association
1776 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20036-1904
Phone: 202-872-0611
Fax: 202-872-0643

Clients include: n/a

American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)

National Duration: 2 days Website: www.asce.org/conted/onsitetraining/course.cfm?layout=detail&c=1

CSS Advanced Series: Flexibility In Design - A New Way of Thinking

Contact: John Wyrick, 703 295 6184

Participants will gain an understanding of the key core components of employing a flexible design approach. The seminar will utilize case studies that have won FHWA awards and will have the opportunity to work with instructors who have been key contributors in the success of those projects.

Earn 1.4 Continuing Education Units (1.4 CEUs)

Clients include:

n/a

CH2M Hill: Context-Sensitive Solutions

National Duration: Information not provided Website: www.ch2m.com/flash/Search/search_frame.htm

"CH2M HILL has been involved with CSS since the early stages of both the concept and its implementation. The firm's strong background in transportation project engineering, environmental studies, permitting, and public involvement provides a broad base of expertise for incorporating CSS practices to meet our clients' needs. CH2M HILL has worked with state DOTs and the FHWA to develop processes for integrating CSS into
transportation organizations and their projects, including developing guidebooks and other resources for implementing CSS practices. CH2M Hill provides a full range of management, planning, technical, and support services needed to move projects from concept to successful competition and operation. For information about how CH2M HILL can help you take a Context Sensitive Solutions approach on your projects, or integrate CSS into your organization, please see contact information."

Contact:

Jim Bednar, Columbus
614-734-4144 ext. 12
jbednar@ch2m.com

Tim Bevan, Seattle
425-453-5000
tbevan@ch2m.com

Tim Neuman, Chicago
773-693-3800 ext. 233
tneuman@ch2m.com

Sam Seskin
503-235-5000
sam.seskin@ch2m.com

Clients include:

Alaska DOT, ADOT, CalTrans, CDOT, DDOT, Iowa DOT, INDOT, Iowa DOT, LaDODT, MDOT, MHD, Maine DOT, NDDOT, NMDOT, NYSDOT, Oregon DOT, RIDOT, TxDOT, VDOT, WSDOT

National Transit Institute (NTI)

National Duration: 3 days Website: www.ntionline.com/CourseInfo.asp?CourseNumber=ID817

"NTI's CSS objectives are to educate professionals about CSS/CSD, its genesis, parameters and tools to implement and how they can be applied in real world settings; promote an understanding of the roles of the federal and state partners in the transportation planning and implementation process; create awareness of the multiple roles of transportation improvements (such as, solving transportation problems, providing a catalyst for economic development, creating or reinforcing a sense of community); help participants recognize that there is the transportation context, the environmental context, and the built (or human) context for transportation projects; stimulate creativity in the design of transportation facilities by utilizing flexibility in current manuals and processes as tools offering opportunities rather than limitations or boundaries; identify ways to develop and respond to community sensitivity; provide the target audience with a greater awareness of the context of problems and to provide tools and techniques to foster dialog among stakeholders to arrive at consensus on a solution."

Contact:

Susan Winter
NTI
120 Albany Street
Tower Two, Suite 250
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-2163
Phone: 732-932-1700 ext. 221
Email: contactus@nti.rutgers.edu

Clients include:

NJDOT

North Carolina State University: Center for Transportation and the Environment: "Context Senstive Solutions: A Better Way"

National Duration: 3 days Website: www.itre.ncsu.edu/cte/CSS/index.html

"'Context Sensitive Solutions: A Better Way,' the CSS course developed for the North Carolina Department of Transportation, is distinctive in both its range and depth. Course materials cover CSS approaches and tools from transportation planning, project development and design on through to right of way, construction, operations and maintenance. Special emphasis is placed on defining 'quality of life,' which is critical to understanding context.

By the end of 2004, CTE will have trained almost 2,000 DOT employees, consultants, federal and state agency regulators, and regional and local government staff. Course participants learn not just from lectures and case study presentations but from facilitated group discussions and decision-making exercises.

CTE developed and customized this course to help implement NCDOTﾒs vision of excellence in design, environmental stewardship, and customer focus. CSS training introduces the concepts of flexibility in design and 'altering the infrastructure to fit the environment' rather than imposing a standard infrastructure upon the human and natural environments. Training helps DOT staff and their partners to meet customersﾒ needs and expectations while fulfilling their responsibilities as environmental stewards. The goal of CSS training is for this approach for achieving transportation solutions to be an integral part of how everyone does business in North Carolina."

Contact:

Ms. Leigh Lane, B.S.C.E.
CSS Training Coordinator,
NCSU-CTE, Box 8601
Raleigh, NC 27695-8601
Phone: (919) 515-8041
Fax: (919) 515-8898
e-mail: lblane@unity.ncsu.edu

Clients include:

NCDOT

Northwestern University, Center for Public Safety (Evanston, IL)

National Duration: 2 days Website: server.traffic.northwestern.edu/course/course_more.asp?id=449

"This two-day workshop will help you become an effective participant in the art of Context Sensitive Solutions. Through lecture and class discussions, you will learn essential CSS methods for rural, suburban, and urban settings. Individual and small group exercises allow you to practice the tools and techniques. Illustrative case studies and hypothetical scenarios make the material interesting and lively.

The course will also increase your understanding of public involvement processes, collaborative problem solving, and decision making systems. Planners, engineers designers, project managers, and administrators from government agencies and private firms will find these important CSS tools useful in a variety of professional situations.

NOTE: Participants registering for both the Traffic Calming: Basics and Beyond Workshop and Context Sensitive Solutions workshop during the same week will receive a $100 discount on the combined registration fee for the two workshops.

Contact:

Northwestern University Center for Public Safety,
600 Foster, Evanston, IL 60204
Phone: 847-491-5476
Fax: 847-491-5270
Email: nucps@northwestern.edu
For On-Demand training, call: 1-800-323-4011

Clients include:

n/a

Project for Public Spaces (PPS)

National Duration: 1 to 5 days Website: www.pps.org/transportation/info/transportation_projects/#sp

Project for Public Spaces, Inc., (PPS) is a non-profit organization specializing in the planning, design, and management of public spaces through technical assistance, research, and education. Since PPS's founding in 1975, the organization has worked with over 1,000 communities within the United States and abroad to help grow their public spaces, including streets, roadways, and their surrounding environments, into vital, distinctive community places that are well-integrated into the community fabric, providing the foundation that helps build healthy, livable communities.

PPS has developed customized courses on Context-Sensitive Solutions that range from one to five days in length. Starting in 2004, PPS provided CSS training to New Hampshire DOT and other agency staff over a three-year period, in partnership with Tom Warne and Associates. In 2002, PPS ran a five-day course for the New Jersey Department of Transportation that trained more than 600 of the agency's employees and customers. PPS ran shorter CSS courses for NYDOT, Wisconsin DOT, and the National Training Institute. PPS offers an approach that looks well "beyond the pavement" to the role that streets and roads can play in enhancing communities and natural environments, and encouraging transportation professionals to collaborate with communities, especially from a placemaking perspective--i.e., with the goal being to leave a better place behind.

PPS's approach to the improvement of streets and roads has always been holistic, working to balance their many functions--pedestrian, traffic, bicycle, and transit--to create places that respond to community needs and where people feel safe and comfortable. PPS has found that when streets and roads work in this way, they can accommodate traffic while becoming important catalysts for improving urban, suburban, and rural communities--physically, economically, socially, and environmentally--as well as for enhancing scenic roads.

PPS's roadway projects have ranged from local streets to state arterials in all parts of the country and in all types of communities. Projects have included simple streetscape improvements, analysis of complex intersections and major thoroughfares, light-rail corridors, mixed vehicle/transit streets, as well as plans for the street environments of entire downtowns and commercial districts.

Some recent examples of PPS project work applying context-sensitive design on state roads and other major streets and arterials are:

 

Littleton, New Hampshire

Context: Main Street reconstruction

"Sensitive" Issues: Experiments to test traffic calming and Placemaking at three key locations in Littleton and developing a new working relationship between towns and the NHDOT, which is cooperating on the experiments as a model process to be potentially adopted state-wide

 

San Mateo County, California

Context: Regional planning for the downtown districts of ten cities and towns, focusing on transit and road facilities and housing

"Sensitive" Issues: Turning transit centers into "Places," creating balanced access, adding housing to a lively downtown mix, and transforming El Camino Real into San Mateo's grand boulevard

 

Vine Street Expressway, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Context: Revitalization of areas along a depressed urban highway

"Sensitive" Issues: Linking neighborhoods together by creating active and attractive destinations and promoting a humanized, pedestrian-friendly treatment of surface streets.

Contact: For more information, contact Andy Wiley-Schwartz at (212) 620-5660 or aschwartz@pps.org Clients include:

NHDOT, NJDOT, NYSDOT, WisDOT, National Training Institute

Short Elliott Hendrickson

National Duration: Information not provided Website: www.sehinc.com

Information about CSS training not available online.

Contact:

Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc.
Butler Square Building, Suite 710C
100 North 6th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55403-1515
phone: 866.830.3388
fax: 612.758.6701
email: info@sehinc.com

Clients include:

WisDOT

Tom Warne and Associates

National Duration: Information not provided Website: www.tomwarne.com/training.htm

"Tom Warne and Associates offers a wide variety of training courses for both public and private clients. Each course is tailored to meet the specific objectives of the client. This ensures the fullest advantage for the engagement. Tom is available for a variety of training, ranging from keynote opportunities to classroom settings. Available course offerings include the following: Context Sensitive Solutions, Design-Build, Public Involvement, Partnering, and others. As a practitioner, Tom Warne has the credibility to reach audiences at all levels of an organization. He tailors his training to the specific audience so that maximum value is derived from the shared experience. Courses can be taught on-site or through the Solutions Institute located in Salt Lake City."

Contact:

For more information or to schedule Tom Warne for your group, call: 801-302-8300 email: twarne@tomwarne.com

Clients include:

NHDOT; NYSDOT

Kentucky Transportation Center, University of Kentucky

State - KY; National Duration: 2 days, 1 day Website: www.ktc.uky.edu

"As of July 2004, the Kentucky Transportation Center has trained nearly 1700 transportation officals in Context Sensitive Solutions through 46 workshops in KY and 18 other states. Each two-day workshop accommodated up to 40 planners, landscape architects, designers, community involvment specialists, and other transportation professionals. KTC has slowed its national on-demand training, but it still provides training within KY approximately twice a year.

In addition to its traditional CSD/CSS workshops, KTC has under taken a new CSD/CSS initiative which includes three tasks: (1) Develop a one-day workshop/course for professional practitioners with a focus on practices and tools that are necessary for application of CSD/CSS; (2) Develop a one-day seminar/workshop for officials, administrators, and managers to address implementation of CSD/CSS through policy, structure, and management; and (3) Develop an online short course (CSD 101) for those interested in the basic concepts and processes of CSD/CSS. Visit the Kentucky Transportation Center online for the more information."

Contact:

Jerry Pigman; University of Kentucky
Kentucky Transportation Center
176 Raymond Building
Lexington, KY 40506 - 0281
Phone: (859) 257-4513ext. 252;
Fax: 859.257.181
email: jpigman@engr.uky.edu

Clients include:

KTC, Iowa DOT, IDOT, DODT, NYSDOT, SDDOT, TDOT, GDOT, KDOT, others

Institute of Transportation Studies - Technology Transfer Program - Training - CSS (Berkeley, CA)

State - CA Duration: Information not provided Website: www.its.berkeley.edu/techtransfer/train/opn/onecode.lasso?code=PL-03

"Through a case study approach, students will learn how to use CSS methodologies and tools to define and understand "context," identify and involve local stakeholders and develop and evaluate options and alternatives for a range of different types of transportation projects and activities, from new facilities to maintenance and rehabilitation of existing ones. Students will also learn how to manage relations across disciplines and achieve design flexibility within existing state and federal standards and guidelines for practice. Tort liability and risk management issues will also be emphasized.

This class provides an introduction to skills needed to implement CSS. It is intended for all practitioners from policy managers and planners to engineers, maintenance supervisors, and operations professionals in both Caltrans and local agencies. Registration will be divided equally between Caltrans and local/federal agencies."

Contact:

Institute of Transportation Studies - Technology Transfer Program Building 155
1301 South 46th Street
Richmond, CA 94804
Michele Cushnie; phone: 510-231-5674
Ted Chavala; phone: 510-231-9447
email: courses@techtransfer.berkeley.edu

Clients include:

Caltrans

Maryland SHA

n/a Duration: n/a Website: www.marylandroads.com/businesswithSHA/projects/ohd/mainstreet/mainstreet.asp

"This handbook guides community representatives and SHA staff through a step-by-step, comprehensive process that will allow them to identify and achieve community goals. In 2002, this publication was recognized by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) with the President's Transportation Award for Planning.

The field-tested approach outlined in "Main Street" is the result of several years of experimentation with community-oriented projects, extensive SHA staff give-and-take, and the contributions of many local communities and citizens' groups. This publication highlights SHA's commitment to the early, continuous and effective involvement of all stakeholders in our project development process. Our Thinking Beyond the Pavement efforts have done more to improve relationships between SHA and municipalities than anything weﾒve ever done. These allies then help us on the larger projects too. While the handbook focuses on the process used in some of our smaller projects, it is representative of the philosophy that we use for all transportation projects."

Contact:

Wendy Wolcott, RLA
TBTP Program Coordinator
Maryland Department of Transportation, State Highway Administration
Chief Engineer's Office, MS C-402
707 North Calvert Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
Phone: (410)545-0365
Fax: (410) 209-5010
Email: wwolcott@sha.state.md.us

Clients include:

MDSHA

Meetings Northwest

State - MT Duration: 3 days Website: www.meetingsnorthwest.com/context.htm

"The Montana Department of Transportation (MDT), the Western Transportation Institute (WTI) at Montana State University-Bozeman, and the Federal Highway Administration sponsored a CSS information-sharing event in early September, 2001. Organizers of the workshop recognized the need and demand for information about context-sensitive highway design to advance the state of the practice. Highway-design practitioners face increasing complexity and expanding stakeholder involvement in their projects. The workshop in Missoula provided a rich forum for continuous learning about context-sensitive design."

Contact:

Lloyd Rue
FHWA-Montana Division
2880 Skyway Drive
Helena, MT 59602
lloyd.rue@fhwa.dot.gov.

Clients include:

SDDOT

Minnesota Department of Transportation and University of Minnesota: Center for Transportation Studies

State - MN Duration: 2 days Website: http://www.cts.umn.edu/Education/ContextSensitive/Workshops.html

"CTS hosts workshops to train participants in Context Sensitive Design concepts. More information on CSD events, workshop schedules, can be found on the CSD workshops page. The complete Participant Manual for the 2001 workshops can also be downloaded in printable PDF format."

Contact:

Scott Bradley, Landscape Architecture Chief
Mn/DOT Design Services Section
395 John Ireland Blvd.- MailStop 686
St. Paul, MN 55155-1899
(Ph) 651-284-3758
(Fax) 651-282-6022
scott.bradley@dot.state.mn.us

Clients include:

Mn/DOT staff

Tennessee Transportation Assistance Program

State - TN Duration: 1 day Website: ctr.utk.edu/ttap/htm/cdesc/context.htm

"At this workshop, participants are introduced to Context-Sensitive Solutions (CSS) ﾖ a new approach to transportation project development. CSS, also known as Context Sensitive Design (CSD) recognizes that transportation projects have far reaching effects on our society. CSS involves interdisciplinary teamwork and interaction with the public and resource agencies to optimize highway safety, mobility, and capacity with equal attention given to the natural and human environment. Participants will learn CSD principles and apply them to a real world case study located in Tennessee."

Contact:

TTAP
Ctr. for Transportation Rsrch.
309 Conference Ctr. Bldg
Knoxville, TN 37996-4133
Ph.(865) 974-5255
1-800-252-7623
Fax. (865) 974-3889
Email: ttap@utk.edu

Clients include:

n/a

University of Minnesota: Center for Transportation Studies: Minnesota Local Technical
Assistance Program: "Context-Sensitive Design for Local Governments"

State - MN - for local governments Duration: 1 day Website: www.mnltap.umn.edu/workshops/info-management/info-management02.html#description

"This one-day workshop is a modification of the three-day context sensitive design course offered to Mn/DOT employees. The class will discuss many of the non-transportation-related issues that arise due to different factors when working on transportation projects."

Contact:

Mindy Jones, Training & Events Coordinator
Minnesota Local Technical Assistance Program, Center for Transportation Studies
200 Transportation and Safety Building
511 Washington Avenue SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Phone:612-625-1813
Fax: 612-625-6381
email: jones154@cts.umn.edu

Clients include:

n/a