Sustainable roadway design through context sensitive design

The concept of context sensitive design is an emerging project development and geometric design approach that aims to balance safety, mobility, human, and environmental needs of a roadway design. A number of key design elements have the potential to influence design choices and thus have a significant impact on the resulting design. One of these elements is design speed and it may be considered as the most influential factor, since it has the potential to affect the magnitude of every single element selected. Moreover, the need for a roadway design that could compel the driver to drive at desired operating speeds is also an emerging concept and requires attention. Achieving compatibility of design speed to operating speed is an issue that should be central to any roadway design and could be part of a sustainable roadway design.