Context Clues: Sarasota and FDOT Designing Florida’s Future

This presentation offers practical tools and methods to help planners implement context-sensitive street design, aligning land use and community goals to develop engineering guidance. The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and the City of Sarasota share insights from their experiences in advancing best practices for context-based design on state and local roads.

Learn how FDOT's context classification and Sarasota's new design manual are improving safety and livability for all modes. Find out about specific tools, such as the FDOT Context Classification Guide and Florida Greenbook updates, that help local agencies integrate context-sensitive design into their planning processes. Presenters highlight how context-based planning mitigates unintended bias by prioritizing design based on land use, current user needs, and community goals, rather than a subjective perception of a place. It supports a performance-based design process that considers project goals and outcomes early in a project and generates feedback loops to make sure designs align with the intended community outcomes. Leave with actionable strategies and lessons learned for enacting inclusive, effective change in your own community.