Slope warping is a landscape grading method that emulates how undisturbed slopes have natural variations in cross slope. The concept essentially involves incorporating berms and swales into the landscape to slow stormwater and improve the aesthetics and safety of our roadsides. Using slope warping in roadside grading can break up long expanses of smooth, steep slopes and improve revegetation success, especially in arid climates. While the concept is similar to slope rounding in that it involves undulating slopes to slow stormwater runoff (see Slope Rounding in Roadway Design Projects), slope warping is more complex because it varies more depending on a site’s unique climate and topography.
This series on the role of landscape architects in roadway design projects kicked off in December—today’s post is the second installment. See the first post here.
This article explores slope rounding, a landscape architecture concept used to stabilize and naturalize state highways. Rounding and warping of slopes is a basic landform grading concept that seldom makes its way into state roadway design guidelines, standard specifications, or standard details. This article serves as a tool to standardize and help elevate this concept at state departments of transportation (DOTs).
Other terms for slope rounding are contour grading, landform grading, foreslope rounding, landforming, or “laying back slopes.” Slope rounding is used for aesthetic purposes and safety purposes alike, especially related to stormwater management and erosion control. Rounding the top and toe of a slope so that it begins convex and ends concave (see Figure 1 below) ensures that stormwater slows as it reaches the base of the slope. Stormwater is an erosive force, and grading and stormwater management can be focused on slowing it down. Slope rounding shifts the upper and lower sections of the slope to their natural angle of repose, the steepest slope angle on which material can be piled without the slope eroding (see Figure 2). If a slope is steeper than its natural angle of repose, it will eventually weather to reach that stable angle with wind and water erosion. By rounding the slope before extensive erosion can occur, we reduce the risk of visual degradation from exposed dirt and slope failure, a safety hazard.
Historic Colorado bridge at US-24 over the Arkansas River / image: Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) Region 5
State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) employ landscape architects who often serve as the aesthetic “eye” for transportation construction projects, selecting colors and textures, developing seed mixes, and providing other expertise to help projects blend into the surrounding context. Many DOT landscape architects conduct visual resource clearances through the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process with the end goal of producing visual mitigation measures (see Visual Resources in the Practice of Landscape Architecture for more on this). This article is the first in a series that aims to outline gaps in visual mitigation guidance as well as provide opportunities and solutions to fill these gaps. The first gap that will be addressed is the disconnect between visual mitigation and the timing of project delivery. This article will outline a path forward to clarifying the landscape architect’s role in the NEPA process.
The root issue is that the timing of visual resource studies in the environmental process often restricts landscape architects to selecting aesthetic treatments or landscaping that will not drastically alter design, such as selecting colors, textures, materials, and seed mixes. There is a common misconception that landscape architects and landscapers are synonymous, and that because landscaping typically comes at the end of a construction project, landscape architects become involved at that phase. Minnesota DOT mentions that “early involvement of landscape architects can facilitate climate resiliency, thoughtful preservation and enhancement of environmental and community assets, human comfort, and visually pleasing transportation experiences,” but their Visual Quality Management (VQM) typically occurs at around 30 percent design. With the exception of high profile projects, DOT landscape architects’ involvement often occurs well into design.
TRB AKD40 Landscape and Environmental Design Committee Member Ellen White giving a presentation during the Committee’s 2024 Mid-Year Meeting. / image: TRB AKD40 Committee on Landscape and Environmental Design
Transportation Research Board 104th Annual Meeting
January 5 – 9, 2025, Washington, D.C.
TRB Standing Committee on Landscape and Environmental Design Call for Posters Deadline: September 15, 2024
The Committee is concerned with design parameters that relate to protecting, conserving, restoring, and enhancing safe, sustainable, and livable transportation systems, facilities, and their associated environments. The Committee promotes research to advance design principles and practices that enhance:
safety and traveler experiences,
scenic, aesthetic, and visual quality,
harmonious integration of facilities within their natural, cultural, and social environments,
sustainable solutions and systems, and
the quality of life for transportation system users and surrounding communities.
The following areas were identified by the AKD40 Committee as being critical areas of research:
Energy and Sustainability – design, policies, and practices to protect the planet.
Policy needs related to the roadside environment and autonomous vehicle technology.
Resilience and Security – preparing for floods, fires, storms, and sea level rise.
Transformational technologies that will change how transportation environments could be retrofitted or rebuilt.
Roadside design to serve growing and shifting populations.
TRB AKD40 Landscape and Environmental Design Committee Members checking out stormwater practices during the Committee’s 2024 Mid-Year Meeting in Florida. / image: courtesy of the TRB AKD40 Committee on Landscape and Environmental Design
Transportation Research Board 104th Annual Meeting
January 5 – 9, 2025, Washington, D.C.
This Call for Papers invites researchers and practitioners to develop papers to be considered for publication and/or presentation at the 2025 TRB Annual Meeting.
The Standing Technical Committee on Landscape and Environmental Design (AKD40) is concerned with design parameters that relate to protecting, conserving, restoring, and enhancing safe, sustainable, and livable transportation systems, facilities, and their associated environments. The Committee promotes research to advance design principles and practices that enhance safety, and traveler experiences; scenic, aesthetic, and visual quality; harmonious integration of facilities within their natural, cultural, and social environments; sustainable solutions and systems; and the quality of life for transportation system users and surrounding communities.
The following areas were identified by the AKD40 Committee as being critical areas of research:
Seek out and support research on Sustainable Design and Maintenance of Green Infrastructure to Improve System Resiliency.
Promote the Design of Complete Streets: Inclusive Design for Active Living and Sustainable and Healthy Modal Choices in Transportation.
Support efforts to design and manage roadsides and transportation corridors that are productive, restorative, and sustainable as environmental and economic assets using innovative approaches to keep roadside ecology, climate resilience and energy concerns at the forefront.
Create solutions to mitigate the decline in pollinator insects and other threatened species and support the potential for the roadside environment to encourage the well-being of these species.
by CeCe Haydock, ASLA, PLA, SITES AP, LEED AP, WEDG
The Atlanta BeltLine’s Historic Old Fourth Ward, a SITES pilot project / image: Aaron Coury, courtesy of the Atlanta BeltLine
“Though the word beautification makes the concept sound merely cosmetic, it involves much more: clean water, clean air, clean roadsides, safe waste disposal, and preservation of valued old landmarks as well as great parks and wilderness areas.
To me…beautification means our total concern for the physical and human quality we pass on to our children and the future.”
With these word, Kevin Burke, FASLA, Design Director, Atlanta BeltLine, Brandon Hartz, ASLA, PLA, SITES AP, LEED AP, Design Director of Landscape Architecture for the General Services Administration (GSA), and I introduced the concept of the SITES v2 Rating System to members of the Standing Committee on Landscape and Environmental Design of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) on one early January 2024 day in Washington, D.C. There were approximately 30 landscape architects and engineers in the room, with many more virtually because of TRB’s large membership. Focusing on sustainability and the massive US transportation system, the presenters borrowed the words of Lady Bird Johnson, who advocated for both beauty and environmental function of roadways throughout the country.
The Standing Committee on Landscape and Environmental Design, comprised mostly of landscape architects, was one of many committees which convened in Washington for the annual TRB conference. During four days of presentations, panels, and internal meetings, approximately 10,000 transportation researchers and practitioners gathered to share diverse knowledge related to all sectors of transportation.
For the presentation “The Atlanta BeltLine: Railroad Corridor to Sustainable Link,” I introduced the SITES v2 Rating System and its relevance to transportation projects. In the SITES system, design is divided into major areas—soil and vegetation, water, materials, and human health and well-being—and is similar to LEED in concept and practice.
Bluebonnets in Ellis County near Ennis, Texas / image: Michael Amador, TxDOT Photo Library Archives
The Texas Department of Transportation’s landscape architects have been designing safety, comfort, and aesthetics into our Texas roadways for 90 years. In celebration of this monumental 2023 anniversary, TxDOT has produced a short video chronicling their contributions and accomplishments. In 1933, Chief Engineer Gibb Gilchrist hired the Texas Highway Department’s first landscape architect, ‘Jac’ Gubbels, who immediately championed the benefits of roadside beautification to the public, contractors, and highway engineers. Gubbels’ 1938 book, American Highways & Roadsides, promoted his design philosophies on highway alignment road profiles, erosion control, and driver safely. Today, TxDOT’s transportation landscape architects are answering the questions of how best to integrate roads into the environmental context; they are designing with native plantings to reduce heat islands to lessen impacts of a warmer environment as well as designing for improved air and water quality. Share in TxDOT’s celebration by viewing the video!
TRB AKD40 Committee Members walking a shared-use path near Irvine, California, as part of the 2023 Mid-Year Meeting. / image: Willson McBurney, ASLA, TRB AKD40 Committee Chair
TRB Standing Committee on Landscape and Environmental Design Call for Posters for the Transportation Research Board 103rd Annual Meeting – January 7-11, 2024 in Washington, D.C.
AKD40 welcomes posters on completed and on-going projects from broad landscape and environmental design areas such as Green Streets, roadside environments for pollinators, Complete Streets, transportation design impacts on Main Streets, landscape design to safeguard the public, and art in transportation.
The deadline for submissions is September 15, 2023.
TRB AKD40 Committee Members surveying a roadway project near Irvine, California as part of the 2023 Mid-Year Meeting. / image: Willson McBurney, ASLA, TRB AKD40 Committee Chair
The Committee is concerned with design parameters that relate to protecting, conserving, restoring, and enhancing safe, sustainable, and livable transportation systems, facilities, and their associated environments. The Committee promotes research to advance design principles and practices that enhance:
safety and traveler experiences,
scenic, aesthetic, and visual quality,
harmonious integration of facilities within their natural, cultural, and social environments,
sustainable solutions and systems, and
the quality of life for transportation system users and surrounding communities.
Topics identified by the AKD40 Committee as being critical areas of research include:
Energy and Sustainability – design, policies, and practices to protect the planet.
Policy needs related to the roadside environment and autonomous vehicle technology.
Resilience and Security – preparing for floods, fires, storms, and sea level rise.
Transformational technologies that will change how transportation environments could be retrofitted or rebuilt.
Roadside design to serve growing and shifting populations.
This past year, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) created new funding opportunities for transportation and green infrastructure projects. ASLA’s Professional Practice Networks (PPNs) are working to share information to support landscape architects thinking about growing your practice in transportation. See below for a few ways to learn more about these new sources of funding.
– Jean Senechal Biggs, ASLA, Transportation Professional Practice Network (PPN) leader
Increase Access to Transit in Low-Income Neighborhoods
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration announced $20 million in competitive grants to help improve public transit in rural and urban areas experiencing long-term economic distress.
This grant is a part of the Areas of Persistent Poverty Program, which aims to build modern infrastructure and an equitable, climate-secure future. Specifically, the program supports increased transit access for environmental justice populations, community outreach and public engagement, and the transition to low- and no-emission vehicles and associated charging equipment.
For projects eligible under the Areas of Persistent Poverty Program, applicants should reference:
FTA Circular 8100-1D – Program Guidance for Metropolitan Planning and State Planning and Research Program Grants and
FTA Circular 9030.1E – Urbanized Area Formula Program: Program Guidance and Application Instructions.
Boothbay Harbor Lighthouse, Maine. The 2022 meeting of the Transportation Research Board’s Standing Committee on Landscape and Environmental Design (AKD40) took place at the Schoodic Institute in Maine this June. / image: Christine Colley
TRB Standing Committee on Landscape and Environmental Design: Call for Posters
Please submit your abstract for consideration for presentation at AKD40’s poster session at the TRB Annual Meeting. Topics that emphasize the following, as they relate to transportation, landscape and environmental design, are a priority for AKD40:
Energy and Sustainability – design, policies, and practices to protect the planet.
Policy needs related to the roadside environment and autonomous vehicle technology.
Resilience and Security – preparing for floods, fires, storms, and sea level rise.
Transformational technologies that will change how transportation environments could be retrofitted or rebuilt.
Roadside design to serve growing and shifting populations.
AKD40 also welcomes completed and on-going projects from broad landscape and environmental design areas such as Green Streets, roadside environments for pollinators, Complete Streets, transportation design impacts on Main Streets, landscape design to safeguard the public, and art in transportation.
The deadline for submissions—by email to Christine Colley, TRB AKD40 Annual Meeting Poster Coordinator—is September 15, 2022.
Sunset at the Schoodic Institute / image: Christine Colley
The Transportation Research Board’s Standing Committee on Landscape and Environmental Design (AKD40) is seeking papers to be considered for publication and/or presentation at the 2023 TRB Annual Meeting. The theme of the Annual Meeting is Rejuvenation Out of Disruption: Envisioning a Transportation System for a Dynamic Future.
This Committee is concerned with design parameters that relate to protecting, conserving, restoring, and enhancing safe, sustainable, and livable transportation systems, facilities, and their associated environments. The Committee promotes research to advance design principles and practices that enhance:
safety and traveler experiences;
scenic, aesthetic, and visual quality;
harmonious integration of facilities within their natural, cultural, and social environments;
sustainable solutions and systems; and
the quality of life for transportation system users and surrounding communities.
The following categories were identified by the AKD40 Committee as being critical areas of research:
Energy and Sustainability – design, policies, and practices to protect the planet.
Policy needs related to the roadside environment and autonomous vehicle technology.
Resilience and Security – preparing for floods, fires, storms, and sea level rise.
Transformational technologies that will change how transportation environments could be retrofitted or rebuilt.
Roadside design to serve growing and shifting populations.
A screenshot from the Transportation PPN’s Zoom Coffee Chat.
Last month, ASLA’s Transportation Professional Practice Network (PPN) hosted an informal Zoom coffee chat for Transportation PPN members as an opportunity to connect and share their experiences and insights on the selected chat focus: returning to in-person engagement, virtual approaches that are here to stay, and how to center community voices in landscape architecture practice.
Ryan Booth, ASLA, PLA, Design Associate at Alta Planning + Design, kicked off the conversation by sharing ways to bring back and improve in-person engagement events.
While traditional forms of engagement can be resource intensive, not inclusive, and may be dominated by a few vocal participants, other formats can be more inclusive by bringing the information to the community. The first example Ryan looked at was the Lincoln Avenue Complete Street Walk and Talk for a project in Walnut Creek, California.
Walk and Talks are an opportunity to communicate technical information to a broad audience, and to be more creative with in-person events. The format also encouraged the community to share their walking and biking experiences from along the corridor, making this event a real two-way street of information exchange. Go beyond the community meeting in a windowless room. Make them actual events!
All Committee members and friends are encouraged to attend the AKD40 2022 Mid-Year Workshop. The Schoodic Institute is about 1.25 hours from Bangor, 3.5 hours from Portland, and 5.5 hours from Boston.
We will conduct Committee business and will learn of the region’s rich transportation history and current best practices from the area’s transportation leaders. Tuesday’s learning sessions will focus on Coastal Maine’s transportation infrastructure needs and the resulting multimodal solutions that are satisfying the needs of Acadia National Park and the Bold Coast. Tours of the new transportation system at Acadia National Park, the Schoodic Byway, and local complete streets projects are anticipated.
The Committee will complete current TRB assignments and work products to prepare for the January 2023 Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
At the Transportation and Planting Design PPNs’ joint session, the conversation focused on best practices to incorporate pollinator habitats along transportation corridors and approaches to fight back against invasive species. If you’re interested in learning more about this topic, check out the reading & resources list prepared by Planting Design and Transportation PPN leaders. / image: Alexandra Hay
For the 2021 ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture, the Transportation Professional Practice Network (PPN) teamed up with the Planting Design PPN to engage in a lively campfire discussion about planting design for pollinators.
Pollinator planting has been and remains a hot topic (see the December 9, 2021 Field post by Liia Koiv-Haus, ASLA, “Making Space for Pollinators,” and “Roadside Realm” from the March 2021 issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine). Both PPNs agreed that preserving pollinator habitat is important, but the methods and resources used to create habitat differed. This is due, in part, to the landscape scales in which each PPNs’ members typically practice. Other differences included maintenance abilities and strategies, budgets, and “owner” motivation. Planting design practitioners are often hired by property owners intent on creating habitat; transportation practitioners are usually required to justify spending public dollars on habitat creation and not on other, more easily justifiable, competing interests (such as roadway improvements and accessibility).
Transportation PPN leaders started the discussion by outlining federal and state resources that departments of transportation (DOTs) use to inform policy and practice decisions about pollinators. The U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration’s Pollinators and Roadsides: Best Management Practices for Managers and Decision Makers is the primary reference for state transportation agencies. The document elaborates on a variety of techniques used by state DOTs, four of which also appeared in Liia Koiv-Haus, ASLA’s “Making Space for Pollinators”—altered mowing practices, reduced herbicide use, protection of existing stands of native vegetation, and re-seeding efforts post construction.
The COVID-19 pandemic is having an unprecedented impact on U.S. transportation. Remote work and unemployment dramatically reduced commuting trips for all transportation modes. Significant declines in transit ridership across the country has been the subject of many headlines. As vaccination rates increase and businesses (hopefully) re-open, what does the future hold for public transit?
U.S. transportation systems, including transit, are designed around the home-to-work commute. This is true despite that fact that most trips do not originate from a home and end at work. Travel to work trips are more likely to occur during “peak demand” or rush hour. The rise in telecommuting has made these early morning/late afternoon trips susceptible to long term (and possibly permanent) decline.
Mass vaccinations and declines in infection rates have eased travel restrictions and social distancing mandates in many states. As a result, travel demand has rebounded to near post-COVID levels relatively quickly. Experts are predicting that this trend will continue after the pandemic is truly over, unless the shift toward telecommuting persists.
In 2018, the percentage of workers telecommuting was around 6% nationally, or triple the rate of telecommuting in the 1980s. Technological advances since the 1980s have made telecommuting possible even if not all were on-board with the practice. Companies reluctant to allow telecommuting pre-COVID suddenly were forced to allow staff to work from home. The extended duration of the pandemic habituated remote work for many. This, combined with advancements in teleworking technologies, potential benefits to the corporate bottom line, and increased employee satisfaction and retention, has caused some experts to predict a more significant and lasting adoption of telework. The result may be a ‘flattening of the peak’ volume during historically traditional rush hours. [See “A Little More Remote Work Could Change Rush Hour A Lot,” by Emily Badger for The New York Times.]
News from the Transportation Research Board’s Standing Committee on Landscape and Environmental Design
The Transportation Research Board (TRB) and the Standing Committee on Landscape and Environmental Design (AKD40) are hosting a webinar this month that will focus on compost-based best management practices on highway roadsides. Committee member Jack Broadbent with Caltrans and our presenters will discuss how these practices advance roadside revegetation, control erosion, reduce runoff, filter stormwater, and improve stormwater quality. They will also introduce practical tools and innovative methods to enhance water quality and roadside vegetation.
This webinar was organized by the TRB Committee on Landscape and Environmental Design with support from the Environmental Analysis and Ecology Committee (AEP70) and the Roadside Maintenance Operations Committee (AKR20).
Bear Mountain Bridge as seen from Bear Mountain Peak along the Palisades Interstate Parkway / image: Palisades Interstate Parkway Commission
On February 16, 2021, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) announced 34 new National Scenic Byways (NSB) and 15 new All-American Roads (AAR). The newly minted America’s Byways—hailing from 28 states across the continent—were designated as part of the 2019 Reviving America’s Scenic Byways Act. The act temporarily re-opened the national program to state and national scenic byways seeking National or All-American Road designation.
Tennessee racked up the most designations, including two All-American Roads and three National Scenic Byways. New Jersey added four new National Byways, and Massachusetts, Florida, Louisiana, Maine, and Wisconsin all had three byways designated as either All-American Roads or National Scenic Byways.
Several multi-state byways were among those receiving new or upgraded federal designations. The longest, the Great River Road National Scenic Byway, follows the Mississippi River for 3,000 miles from northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. The Lincoln Highway now has three National Scenic Byways along the corridor: Iowa, Nebraska, and Illinois (designated a NSB in 2000). Historic Route 66 in Missouri became an AAR—the only portion of the famous route to achieve this prestigious designation. Other segments of Route 66 (Oklahoma, New Mexico, Illinois, and Arizona) are National Scenic Byways. New Mexico joined Colorado and Utah as a National Scenic Byway along the Trail of the Ancients. North Carolina and Tennessee received AAR designation for their Newfound Gap Road Byway, and the Palisades Scenic Byway became a NSB in New York and New Jersey. To see a complete list of America’s Byways, check out FHWA’s website.
Revisiting the lost plans of Frederick Law Olmsted and the history of San Francisco’s most iconic park to imagine what might be
For the first two installments in this series, please see Ancient History Revisited and Ancient History Revisited, Part 2, published on The Field last month. For more about the series, check out the October 1 edition of the San Francisco radio show Roll Over Easy for an interview with author Alec Hawley and also Luke Spray of the San Francisco Parks Alliance in the show’s second half. Alec discusses his strange findings about San Francisco’s initial parks system bid by Olmsted and how they imply amazing things for the city right now.
“The conclusion to which these considerations lead, is obviously that whenever a pleasure ground is formed in San Francisco, it should have a character which the citizens will be sure to regard with just pride and satisfaction. It should be a pleasure ground second to none in the world—a promenade which shall, if possible become so agreeable to its citizens, that when they go elsewhere they will remember it gratefully, and not be obliged to consider it a poor substitute for what is offered them by the wiser policy of other cities.”
So, what can we as contemporary San Franciscans do? What can our elected officials push for that will make for a more equitable and green city for all that takes into account how they managed to do the ‘impossible’ but also missed systematic opportunities in open space planning from San Francisco’s beginning as a city?
Looking at a map of San Francisco, it is easy to see the historical inequity and poor planning. While the ‘impossible’ Golden Gate Park did unfurl over a series of decades, the process that Olmsted outlined—asking for a series of small parks connected by avenues free from the dust and noise of the city—was completely missed.
And, I believe this is where there is still hope. There is no straightforward way that a park on the scale (1,017 acres, 20% larger than Central Park) and shape of Golden Gate Park can be made today. There just isn’t the undeveloped space to accommodate its dimensions (barring very serious disasters); but there are lots of avenues, and these are quickly becoming the places of respite from the dust and noise of the city that hold great potential.
Map of the City and County of San Francisco drawn for the San Francisco News Letter and the Pacific Mining Journal by James Butler, 1864. Park overlap – Olmsted proposal: 120 properties; Olmsted’s successor William Hammond Hall’s proposal: 14 properties. / image: David Rumsey Map Collection
Revisiting the lost plans of Frederick Law Olmsted and the history of San Francisco’s most iconic park to imagine what might be
For the first installment in this series, please see Ancient History Revisited, published on The Field last week.
While the supervisors and mayor of San Francisco were focused on directing development of San Francisco outwards to the Pacific Ocean, where land could be acquired relatively easily for their purposes, Frederick Law Olmsted’s report, to the contrary, wished to develop a park in what is now known as Lower Haight / Hayes Valley and City Hall, with a broad parkway connecting the Bay to the interior, along what is now Van Ness Ave.
Olmsted’s chief argument was a practical one, depicting the extreme challenges that San Francisco would face with the possibility of a Central Park-sized pleasure ground and Sylvan aesthetic.
Revisiting the lost plans of Frederick Law Olmsted and the history of San Francisco’s most iconic park to imagine what might be
“No city in the world needs such recreation grounds more than San Francisco. A great Park, or—what is more practical—a series of small parks, connected by varied and ornamental avenues, where people can drive, ride, and walk, free from the dust and noise, is the great want of this city.”
Why revisit plans and thoughts that are more than a century and a half old in the midst of a crisis that deserves immediate attention, and safe access for all to public space? What purpose do we find to look back and analyze the origins of the City by the Bay and imagine this debate now that San Francisco is a globalized metropolis of nearly one million? What could be learned by revisiting an era when more than half the city was tidal marsh and sand dunes with a minuscule fort, a mission, and small port of trade? Could we, in this bleak hour, find the advice there to guide our path for shaping space in the contemporary urban life of the San Francisco that we seek?
We are all collectively seeking room to breathe right now. It is not a mystery why streets, gardens, and parks have become so vital and primary in the consciousness of 2020. Schools, businesses, airports, and factories have been shuttered, opened, and some closed again for months, as we try to manage a global pandemic that is destroying our communities. The only remaining space to escape outside of our homes are our shared streets and public parks. Where better to go than to explore our city’s origins, when our daily lives are in upheaval, to see if even a shred of insight lingers to help ease our current condition, which may well become a new era in landscape and urban planning.
Demand for flexible urban transportation options is on the rise and becoming even more vital these days. Bike, scooter, and other options have reshaped how people access, mobilize, and interact with urban spaces. Many large cities have been slow to adjust to these quickly shifting trends and the need for alternative solutions. Shifts from traditional automobiles and associated infrastructure to more micro-scale transportation uses will continue to test local government’s ability to provide adequate planning approaches.
Micromobility devices offer flexibility and freedom that traditional passenger vehicles cannot and cost less, emit little to no emissions, and are much easier to park/store. Micromobility is defined by Wikipedia as a range of small, lightweight devices operating at speeds typically below 15 mph for trips up to 6 miles. Micromobility devices include bicycles, Ebikes, electric scooters, electric skateboards, shared bicycles, and electric pedal-assisted (pedelec) bicycles.
As you can imagine, transitional passenger vehicle infrastructure does not adequately provide for micromobility device use. The City of Seattle has recently taken a different approach to traditional transportation, permanently closing down 20 miles of streets to most vehicles and making them for public access only. In Portland, Oregon, building codes recently changed to require additional micromobility storage in new structures to meet increasing demand while trying to avoid safety concerns about them littering the sidewalk. The City of Atlanta’s Department of Transportation recently approved more than $200 million in funding for transportation improvements focused on pedestrians, bikes, scooters, and other micromobility devices.
Just a few weeks ago, we didn’t anticipate being told to “stay-at-home” in quarantine while a global health pandemic ravaged public health and the economy. For those of us who work in the transportation industry, we’re used to projects lasting for years with a schedule of milestones set in place, one leading to the next. Spring is a time when many projects reach that critical milestone of a public meeting. Community engagement is part of the critical path, and project decisions can’t be made, allowing the project to advance, without meaningful opportunities to hear public input. How can we engage with communities when we must be “socially distant”?
Projects across the country are being put on hold, unable to reach that critical milestone of a public meeting while our constituents are safely staying home, busy working overtime performing an essential service, or worse—battling sickness themselves. However, public engagement can still occur—even if it’s in a different form than we originally planned.
Virtual public meetings aren’t new, but now more than ever, they are being embraced as an effective tool to engage with community members and project stakeholders. Meetings can be hosted on a variety of platforms allowing presenters to share presentations and discuss ideas with small groups of community members. These meetings can be advertised in all the same ways that traditional in-person meetings are publicized—on websites, through the press and social media, and by mail. Paid advertisements can also be effective at getting the word out and directing people to a website where they can connect.
Mohawk Towpath Scenic Byway, NY / image: Eric Hamilton
State Scenic Byways are roads or highways under federal, state, or local ownership that have been designated by the state through legislation or some other official declaration for their ability to meet one or more of the six intrinsic qualities. Federal guidance identified these intrinsic qualities as scenic, historic, recreational, cultural, archeological, and/or natural. The Scenic Byway program was initiated under the 1992 Federal transportation legislation known as ISTEA. The federal program was discontinued in 2012.
On September 22, 2019 the President signed H.R. 831, Reviving America’s Scenic Byways Act of 2019. The act directs the Secretary of Transportation to request nominations for and make determinations regarding roads to be designated under the National Scenic Byway Program. Only roadways already designated as state byways with Corridor Management Plans (CMPs) are eligible to apply.
Because the legislation references National Scenic Byway designation exclusively, it is unclear if byways will be permitted to seek All-American Road (AAR) designation. What is clear is that the scenic byway dedicated federal funding program available when the Federal Scenic Byway Program was initiated in 1992 remains defunct. Scenic Byway organizations continue to be eligible to partner with municipalities and apply for funding under the Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) program for transportation alternatives (TA). Activities eligible for TA funding include scenic pull offs, interpretative signs, and highway beautification projects. Neither corridor management plan preparation nor administrative costs associated with managing a byway are eligible for TA funding (it should be noted that the latter never was eligible for federal funding).
Incentives for becoming a National Scenic Byway include advertising opportunities, exposure on FHWA’s National Scenic Byway website, and the potential to appeal to a tourism community that extends far beyond state boundaries.
The 2018 TRB Annual Meeting / image: Willson McBurney
Call for Posters: 99th TRB Annual Meeting
January 12-16, 2020
Washington, D.C.
AFB40 abstract submission deadline: September 16, 2019
The Transportation Research Board (TRB) Standing Committee on Landscape and Environmental Design (AFB40) invites submissions of your work as part of a landscape and environmental design poster session at TRB’s Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. in January 2020.
Please submit your abstract for consideration for presentation at the TRB Annual Meeting’s Landscape and Environmental Design (AFB40) poster session. Topics that emphasize the following as they relate to transportation and environmental design are a priority for AFB40:
Energy and sustainability—design, policies, and practices to protect the planet.
Policy needs related to the built environment that should be developed prior to full adoption of autonomous vehicle technology.
Resilience and security—preparing for floods, fires, storms, and sea level rise.
Transformational technologies that will change how transportation environments should be retrofitted or rebuilt.
Design to serve growing and shifting populations.
AFB40 also welcomes completed and on-going projects from broad landscape and environmental design areas such as Green Streets, roadsides for pollinators, Complete Streets, transportation design impacts on Main Streets, landscape design to safeguard the public, and art in transportation, as they relate to the scope of this committee. More information on AFB40 can be found on the committee’s website.
Does your state Department of Transportation (DOT) have standards for green infrastructure (GI)? A recent study from the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) investigated how transportation agencies are applying the principles and practices of GI. The study—Leading Landscape Design Practices for Cost-Effective Roadside Water Management—was requested by the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and prepared by a team of experts that included Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and DOT staff from across the country (California, Minnesota, Washington, Maine, Louisiana, and Nevada). The team scanned existing state DOT GI regulations, targeted regional, city, and DOTs with robust GI programs, and conducted a deep dive into GI standards and specifications. The intent was to suss out successful and unsuccessful practices with an eye toward developing guidelines for state and other public agencies to use when creating GI programs.
The study defined green infrastructure as roadside stormwater management, low impact development (LID), and hydromodification or watershed actions that conserve water, buffer climate change impacts, improve water quality, water supply, and public health, and restores and protects rivers, creeks, and streams as a component of transportation development projects and operations. Despite substantial documentation on GI design, buy-in from all levels of government (federal, state, and local), ample research, and a plethora of knowledgeable consultants, the team found that state DOTs do not consistently employ GI techniques and often only use them when required by regulatory agencies. The study was developed to help inform public agencies on the components of successful GI programs.
On February 6, the House of Representatives voted to pass H.R. 831 – Reviving America’s Scenic Byway Act of 2019. The act proposed to grant the Secretary of Transportation 90 days to request nominations for roads to be designated under the National Scenic Byway Program (23 USC §162) and to make designation determinations within one year after making the request for nominations.
In honor of the House of Representatives vote to pass H.R. 831, we are asking you to post a comment below telling us about your favorite Scenic Byway and/or favorite Scenic Byway Logo. Be sure to include links to photos and memorable sites along the route if you can.
Background
The federal National Scenic Byway Program was enacted in 1991 under ISTEA (Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act). Several states followed suit by passing laws to create state scenic byway programs. Currently 48 states and the District of Columbia have legislated scenic byway programs. Roads designated as scenic byways must have at least one of six intrinsic qualities: scenic, historical, archaeological, natural, cultural, or recreational. These intrinsic qualities describe features specific and unique to the roadway. A scenic byway corridor is managed to protect the byway’s intrinsic quality and to encourage economic development through tourism and recreation.
by Christine Colley, ASLA, RLA, and the Transportation PPN Leadership Team
The view toward the Philadelphia Museum of Art down Benjamin Franklin Parkway / image: EPNAC
The Transportation Professional Practice Network (PPN) meeting at the 2018 ASLA Annual Meeting and EXPO in Philadelphia last month was well attended and chock-full of content. Incoming PPN Co-Chair Jean Senechal Biggs, ASLA, opened the session by introducing the PPN leadership team (read more about the team here). She described the PPN’s mission and referenced associated practice networks and ASLA initiatives, including the New Mobility and Emerging Technologies Subcommittee (previously Autonomous Vehicles) of ASLA’s Professional Practice Committee. The PPN’s Online Learning sessions, newsletter, and website were also discussed.
In keeping with the Transportation PPN’s annual tradition, ASLA’s Director of Federal Government Affairs, Roxanne Blackwell, Esq., Hon. ASLA, provided a legislation update. Roxanne was pleased to report no threats to funding for major federal programs relevant to landscape architects at this time. She noted that the very popular TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) program had been renamed. The new BUILD (Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development) Transportation Discretionary Grants program maintains the TIGER program’s singular focus on surface transportation infrastructure investments by offering competitive grants that favor projects with significant local or regional impacts. The funding level for the BUILD grants has been set at $1.5 billion dollars.
Another promising legislative action is H.R. 5158. This bill was unanimously approved by the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in September. The bi-partisan bill directs the Secretary of Transportation to reopen the nomination process for National Scenic Byways and All-American Roads. Roxanne reminded those in attendance that live social media alerts on H.R. 5158 had been sent out to members. She urged everyone to contact their Representative(s) to express support for the bill. The goal is to get as many co-sponsors in this Congress as possible—a show of bipartisan support—before Congress transitions in 2019. ASLA members continue to report using funds from the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA’s) Scenic Byway program. ASLA would consider it an incredible coup if program funding was re-established.
Context Sensitive Design (CSS) is having a moment. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has recently released three new publications on Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS) and Context Sensitive Design (CSD). The documents are excellent resources for seasoned and novice transportation landscape architects:
Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS) and Context Sensitive Designs (CSD) are not new. The concept was first introduced in the 1997 FHWA publication A Guide for Achieving Flexibility in Highway Design and further defined during the May 1998 workshop Thinking Beyond the Pavement: A National Workshop on Integrating Highway Development with Communities and the Environment. CSS is a decision-making tool that emphasizes multidisciplinary, collaborative approaches to the planning and design of transportation infrastructure. Ideally, when following a CSS decision-making process, the result is a transportation facility uniquely suited to its setting. CSS is achieved by maintaining and enhancing scenic, aesthetic, historical, community, and environmental resources while simultaneously improving or maintaining safety and mobility.
The Hilton Dallas/Rockwall Lakefront / image: TRB Committee on Landscape & Environmental Design (AFB40)
Save the Date: September 16-20, 2018 Rockwall, Texas (near Dallas)
The Transportation Research Board (TRB) Committee on Landscape and Environmental Design (AFB40) will be holding our mid-year business meeting in conjunction with the National Safety Rest Area Conference (NSRAC). NSRAC is a valued program of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Subcommittee on Maintenance. This conference is the premier venue for public rest area planners and landscape architects, public welcome center managers, rest area program managers, facilities maintenance staff, contractors, vendors, and transportation officials from across the United States and Canada to meet and learn best practices. AFB40 is participating in the agenda development so that conference content is pertinent to the mission of the committee.
The committee will be completing current TRB assignments and work products to prepare for the January 2019 Annual Meeting in Washington D.C. and will have an excellent opportunity to meet and confer with transportation professionals involved in roadside design from around the nation.
Here is the conference schedule:
September 16: AFB40 members arrive
September 17: AFB40 business meeting, evening reception for all attendees
September 18: Conference Learning Sessions
September 19: AFB40 business meeting in the morning; conference tours in the afternoon
September 20: Conference Learning Sessions
Stay tuned to our website for more information on the final agenda, lodging, and registration.
