Two new concepts have been introduced in transportation planning and engineering over the past 10 years: safety-conscious planning (SCP) and a context-sensitive solutions (CCS) approach to project development. This article examines SCP and CSS from the perspective of basic concepts and principles, and identifies issues that have served as focal points for disagreements in the past between those interested in promoting the community context and those advocating safety. Despite these disagreements, the two concepts are complementary: SCP can provide important context for CSS development efforts, and CSS provides an opportunity to consider safety along with other community concerns in project-level planning. However, several design concepts and principles, based on professionally accepted concepts of safe engineering practice, often can lead to conflicting perspectives on desired design characteristics. Transportation engineers are facing increasing pressure to identify project designs that best serve the purposes of both the traveling public and those who live in the community. Since SCP and CSS both depend heavily on the participation of numerous stakeholders and community representatives, transportation agencies must make sure that participants representing safety and community context issues are both involved so that they can contribute to the ultimate outcome of each process.
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