TRB's Transportation Research Circular E-C097, International Perspectives on Urban Street Design: Proceedings of the Context-Sensitive Design Workshop includes four papers that were presented during the 2005 TRB 84th Annual Meeting. The papers explore street design in small European towns; context-sensitive design aspects of arterial streets in Berlin, Germany; and issues relative to historic sites such as Stonehenge in the United Kingdom. The report also includes highlights from a roundtable discussion that followed the paper presentations.

Designing roadways to address the capacity and safety issues while considering their physical and human environmental needs has been emphasized through recent context-sensitive design (CSD) or context-sensitive solutions (CSS) initiatives. To achieve balance, trade offs among several factors are usually considered. Moreover, this approach necessitates flexibility in applying the current design guidelines and the use of creative design in addressing the sitespecific project needs. The CSD/CSS approach encourages the designer to use creative design and move away form the "typical cross section" concept where a standard template is used. There are often conflicting elements in a design and a designer is called upon to develop a solution that will consider and address these elements by designing a roadway non conforming to the full design values used up to that point. These elements are often more important for urban streets, since the community values frequently become the most important and often controlling factor.

Significant efforts have been made recently in the United States to apply and utilize such principles in roadway design. However, there are several European countries that have implemented this approach for significantly longer time and it was considered appropriate to learn from these efforts and experiences. The articles included in this circular were presented as part of a workshop during the 84th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board and included work in Germany and the United Kingdom.

Two of the presentations dealt with street design in small towns while another presented CSD aspects of arterial streets within big cities (in this case Berlin, Germany). The fourth presentation addressed issues relative to historic sites (Stonehenge, U.K.).

External Links:

More Information: www.trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?ID=6477

Further Reading:

International Perspectives on Urban Street Design: Proceedings of the Context-Sensitive Design Workshop