Context Driven Guide and Web Portal – Benefits of Transportation

The Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration is addressing safety for pedestrians and bicyclists in a series of projects that are implementing an updated mobility design guide.

In 2019, MDOT SHA began implementing its Draft “Context Driven – Access and Mobility for All Users” version 1.0 guide that focuses on creating a safe, accessible, and balanced multimodal transportation system. A core tenet reestablished in this guide was the need to appropriately balance accessibility and mobility. In this guide, MDOT SHA established six context zones, ranging from urban core to rural, to ensure this balance is set to meet the specific needs of Maryland’s varied communities.

The Context Guide identified several proactive treatments that will improve access, mobility and safety for all users, especially pedestrians and bicyclists. Those treatments include implementing a series of low-cost, high-impact countermeasures in urban cores and urban centers, including high-visibility continental crosswalks, speed limit reductions, right-turn-on-red restrictions, leading pedestrian interval signal-timing adjustments and lane reductions.

Since 2019, a total of 196 proactive Context Driven projects around the State have been completed as part of Context Driven and to support Statewide Vision Zero goals. In addition to improving bike lanes, sidewalks and signals as a part of new road construction projects, many older intersections have been retrofitted to improve safety. MDOT SHA worked with local partners to study and improve corridors like Veirs Mill Road and cores like the Wheaton Triangle. MDOT SHA also installed a new signal, continental crosswalk and sidewalks in front of the Michael E. Busch Annapolis Library. Just recently, MDOT SHA announced its new comprehensive web portal on creating safe and accessible transportation systems that is now available through its homepage at roads.maryland.gov. The Context Driven Web Portal will house MDOT SHA’s suite of “Context Driven: Access & Mobility for All Users” resources, including an interactive Context Guide version 1.0 and a new Statewide Progress Project Map.

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2021

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