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The transportation and development process Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS) emerged from the 1998 Thinking Beyond the Pavement conference, where participants sought to define a set of professional values that would increase transparency in decision making and integrate the transportation infrastructure into communities in ways that would enhance and maintain the existing aesthetic and historic environment. The approach to transportation design and regional development emphasizes a collaborative style of policy making, one in which all participants freely contribute their opinions and insights and clearly understand the short-term impact of construction and long-term effects of the project as a whole. Beyond the planning phase, the philosophy evaluates projects in terms of their disruption of community life, their success in balancing transportation needs with existing cultural resources, and their ability to meet the needs of the widest spectrum of the population possible.
The Context Sensitive Solutions ideal has helped planners define projects in light of sustainable development and a more organic sense of community. To make the principles more accessible, the website ContextSensitiveSolutions.org provides an overview of CSS, examples of successful projects, and a wide range of resources exploring the core concepts and applications of this approach to development.
. Historian Shae Davidson's research interests include public policy and the relationship between culture and civil society. His publications range from articles on industrial history to absurdist poetry.
