Specifications include, but are not limited to: Best Practices A review of the transportation literature suggests that best practices in corridor planning are based on smart growth, new urbanism, and context sensitive design, 1 including, for example, complete streets and green streets. According to Lindquist (2007), the focus is on major thoroughfares in urban environments where development intensity, mix of land uses and design features combine to create the opportunity for walking, transit and biking to be feasible transportation choices. Some of the approaches address both context and developing context-sensitive designs. Most of the best practices address: (1) the relationships and tradeoffs involved in balancing mobility needs, adjoining land uses, and environment and community interests (2) approaches to resolving the challenges encountered on a individual thoroughfare by addressing the larger scale of the network or corridor (3) guidance to identify and select thoroughfare types and designs to best meet the needs of a particular context and (4) design criteria for roadway elements. Successful corridor planning efforts tend to follow these best practices and produce corridor management plans that are: Comprehensive, based on a full understanding of the dynamics of transportation and all interacting influences within the corridor Proactive, seeking to identify and address transportation-related problems before they arise, rather than after they have grown to the point of being intolerable Visionary in nature, meaning that the recommended strategies for the corridor arise from a shared vision for the corridor established by local communities and state agencies with jurisdiction over the corridor and Collaborative, meaning that transportation agencies, local governments, stakeholders and the public at large all participate in the development, implementation and monitoring of the corridor plan.
