[EQAB-list] Transportation decisions...

[Fred L Stephens]

Context Sensitive Solutions

http://www.cssnationaldialog.org/index.asp

Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) defines Context Sensitive 
Solutions (CSS) as:
    * A collaborative, interdisciplinary approach that involves all 
stakeholders to develop a transportation facility that fits its 
physical setting and preserves scenic, aesthetic, historic and 
environmental resources, while maintaining safety and mobility
    * An approach that considers the total context within which a 
transportation improvement project will exist

CSS principles address both the transportation decision-making 
process and project outcomes. A CSS process relies on "open, honest, 
early and continuous" communication, and draws from the knowledge 
that communities and other stakeholders bring to a transportation 
question. With a focus on collaboration and consensus, CSS 
meaningfully involves stakeholders in transportation planning, 
design, and implementation. CSS means taking a flexible approach to 
designing a transportation project, so that the infrastructure fits 
into the natural and human environment, its context.

US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood has a set forth a 
transportation policy agenda that includes "a strong focus on people 
and the communities where they live and work" with "a commitment to 
the principles that some refer to as livability; that is, investing 
in a way that recognizes the unique character of each community. The 
era of one-size-fits-all transportation projects must give way to one 
where preserving and enhancing unique community characteristics, be 
they rural or urban, is a primary mission of our work rather than an 
afterthought." A 
<http://commerce.senate.gov/public/_files/LaHoodTestimony12109FINAL.pdf>transcript 
of Secretary LaHood's full testimony before the US Senate is available.




Fred L Stephens
email: FredStephens at gmail.com