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Context Sensitive Solutions Technical Assistance: Washington State Department of Transportation

Key Takeaways

Lessons learned from the TA included:

• For WSDOT, it is important to coordinate with the Comprehensive Planners – early and continuously.
• There are likely multiple metrics that go along with each guiding question – but knowing which metric to use is an aspect of understanding the context.
• CSS is an iterative process. Throughout the design and planning process, it should be applied repeatedly, and especially when large project changes are occurring.
• The dominant issue brought out in the discussions of process was the need for enhanced resources and staffing to help the public understand the issues during planning and scoping. The second dominant issue is finding a way to work with the state legislature to ensure that WSDOT’s philosophy of incorporating multi-modal uses and livability principles are in alignment with the State’s transportation priorities.
• Being flexible and exerting engineering judgement to take alternative approaches, when warranted, is good! Ensure that decisions are supported and warranted with quantitative, evidence-based reasoning, and are well documented.

The following recommendations were provided to WSDOT as it begins developing the 2017 guide manual:

1. Define context. WSDOT’s design manual and the project development process both contain points at which context should be defined; however, neither document offers direction on how to define context nor what to do with the resulting defined context. WSDOT should develop a formal process for when and how to ask the Context Questions generated as part of this technical assistance, as well as when and how to assign Performance Metrics.
2. Build in a Scoping phase. The Scoping phase should be promoted as a key component of the Project Development process. As WSDOT is defining it now, the Scoping phase should be highlighted in between the Planning and Design processes, and cover the policy framework, managing system assets, identification of need, and assessing alternative strategies.
3. Work in coordination with others in the community. WSDOT should collaborate with local jurisdictions, MPOs, and other state and local agencies to create regionally integrated transportation and land use plans. WSDOT should consider bringing on “on-call” consultants capable of supplying technical assistance to communities on how to create a local network and land use plan that supports WSDOT’s mission to provide appropriate mobility for all. This will help advance WSDOT’s approach to project development and its community engagement efforts which may increase opportunities for collaborative comprehensive planning.