Context-Sensitive Highway Design

Advocate for Context-Sensitive Highway Design!

Roads and highways play a significant role in the visual quality of our communities, making transportation design a key component of smart growth and scenic stewardship. Citizens can demand "context-sensitive" highway design from their state department of transportation to ensure that all road design considers an area's built and natural landscape; takes into account the environmental, scenic, aesthetic, historic, community, and preesrvation impacts of a road project; and provides access for other modes of transportation such as bicycles, pedestrians, and mass transit.

In addition, citizens can encourage state lawmakers to adopt legislation to foster context-sensitive road design standards on a statewide basis.

Strategies for Advocating for Context-Sensitive Highway Design

The best time to promote context-sensitive highway design is early in the planning process. Seek opportunities to participate: find out how citizens and local organizations can have a role in transportation planning for your community so that you are a part of the ongoing decision-making process.

How to Participate in Long-term Transportation Planning

Join a citizen advisory committee for a local, regional, or state transportation planning agency. If such a committee does not exist, create one to fill the need. Explore opportunities for citizens to become involved locally in traffic management or road design, or initiate a community road design committee for your neighborhood.

Contact your metropolitan planning organization or state transportation agency about transportation projects you would like to see implemented. Most metropolitan regions (those with population over 50,000) have a metropolitan planning organization (MPO) which conducts transportation planning for the area. The MPO is resopnsible for the region's long-range transportation plan (typically 20 years) and short-term Transportation Improvement Program (usually three to six years).

Gather support in your community and among local officials for a specific transportation need; then request that the planning organization include the project in state and local transportation plans.

Organize your allies to participate in public hearings and submit testimony. Federal law requires each state and metropolitan planning agency to include public involvement in the adoption of transportation plans. Be ready at the hearing with a clear statement, questions, and alternative solutions. Citizens and experts alike can also submit written testimony.

Advocate for your state to pass context-sensitive highway design legislation. In addition to the state DOT, communicate your concerns to the governor and to members of the state legislature who sit on the transportation committee.

How to Participate in Specific Transportation Projects:

Make very clear your concerns about the project. Explain the features or characteristics you want to protect and outcomes you want to achieve, even if you don't yet have a specific design alternative you wish to promote.

Request visual simulation to illustrate what the project will look like as designed. The project engineer should be able to produce visual simulations to illustrate several alternative designs that will solve the problems both you and the engineer have identified. Computerized visual simulation, which can illustrate various design alternatives, can be an especially powerful tool for predicting the impact of the transportation project.

Develop an alternative proposal. Try to be positive in your efforts: identify not only what you don't want, but what you do want in this road project and how that can be accomplished. A positive, well-grounded alternative proposal, perhaps prepared by a hired consultant, can open some eyes. Establishing an alternative proposal also gives your potential allies a specific option to support besides the status quo or the original proposal.

(Material provided by Scenic America.)