| With the enactment of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) in 1991, the U.S. Department of Transportation began to develop more balanced transportation systems, which consider environmental, cultural, economic, and social conditions. The incorporation of thinking about both quality of life and balanced transportation environments is known as transportation enhancement. Currently, landscaping and scenic beautification is one of twelve transportation enhancement activities.; The vision of most state departments of transportation is to create the best transportation system in balance with the social, environmental, scenic, aesthetic, and historic values of federal and tribal lands. High volume urban parkways, rural parkways in national parks, or city streets/corridors are the main types of projects currently being administrated. Toward the goal of building balanced transportation systems, Context Sensitive Design (CSD) applies the implied flexibility in dealing with roadway planning, design, and construction. Flexibility in highway design is a process that matches the purpose and function of the road to the recommended design standards in the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (ASSHTO), Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets (“The Green Book”) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Flexibility in Highway Design.; The findings of this research may provide a theoretical rationale to support landscaping and scenic beautification activities and context sensitive design/solution practices in terms of traffic safety because parkway or landscape improved sections in this study appear to be safer for motorists and pedestrians than the compared freeways or road sections before landscape improvement. Particularly, urban parkway corridors show a significant decrease in fatal accident rate and accident cost compared to urban freeway sections. Crash rates at urban street sections also show a significant decrease after landscape improvements. In addition, median landscape treatments appear to be a meaningful safety measure.; However, further research is needed to find a relationship between visual perception according to travelway corridor landscape types or treatments and traffic safety effects. |
