The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) recognizes Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS) as a process for building livable communities. The concept of livability has many interpretations but it is best defined by asking people at the community level how they want to live. The CSS design approach to transportation projects begins by asking stakeholders to both define the challenge and then create a shared vision for a solution.
Quote from “Quantifying the Benefits of Context Sensitive Solutions,” National Cooperative Highway Research Project Report 642, p 3:
“[The goal of CSS] is to achieve a project development process that provides an outcome harmonizing transportation requirements with community needs and values. CSS aims to address the question ‘How do people in this community want to live’ before investigating mobility and access solutions.”
While each community has its own answers for what is livability, commonalities include: economic competitiveness, access to affordable housing and transportation, quality schools, environmental preservation and a sense of place. How a community defines livability may depend on its size, its environ, its history and its development pattern (urban, suburban, city, town, or rural); the Context Sensitive Solution process can be applied to transportation projects in all these contexts to deliver livability outcomes (See Rural Livability.)
The following Livable Community goals are supported by Context Sensitive Solutions:
CSS guided transportation projects address goals beyond transportation; economic competitiveness is one of the most important considerations for local officials and other stakeholders. Local officials are increasingly asking for transportation projects that improve opportunities for walking, biking and transit. Business operators are increasingly asking for streets that add value to their businesses. Local residents are increasingly asking for better access to parks, waterfronts, and other community assets. CSS guided transportation projects can address these stakeholder goals with the outcome being a more economically competitive community.
FHWA’s Economic Development and Livability Fact Sheet
Housing and transportation costs are the two largest expenses for most households. CSS guided transportation projects can improve housing affordability by providing better connections to low and no cost transportation, and by locating housing near employment, schools, social services, parks and other destinations.
CSS guided transportation projects consider the transportation needs of all ages and abilities by including stakeholders such as senior citizens, the disabled and youth. Providing these stakeholders with high quality walking, biking and transit connections enables independent living, preserves social connectivity, and reduces costs associated with on-demand transit and school transportation.
FHWA’s Housing and Transportation Livability Fact Sheet
Schools are valuable community assets. A quality school system attracts new residents making it an important contributor to economic development. Schools are also important venues for recreation, culture and civic participation. Better access to amenities provided by schools enriches the lives of community members, resulting in a more livable community. CSS guided transportation projects consider ways to preserve and improve transportation connections between schools and residents by improving safety and better coordinating land use planning and transportation investments.
EPA’s Resources on Smart Growth and School Siting
Each community has a story, environment and aesthetic. CSS guided transportation projects can help preserve and accentuate these things from which a community derives its identity. Transportation projects that result in more compact and mixed use development, reduce stormwater runoff and shift trips away from cars to cleaner modes, thus reducing air and noise pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
FHWA’s Transportation, Development and Environment Fact Sheet
Livability Principles at Highway Interchanges (webinar)
Level of Service & Livability: Making the Connection (webinar)
