SAFE TRANSPORTATION FOR EVERY PEDESTRIAN CASE STUDY

MDOT Puts STEP Countermeasures into 

Context

Maryland 

KEY ELEMENTS:

Context Specific Recommendations

Integrating STEP Countermeasures 

The "Context Driven: Access & Mobility For All Users” 

guide categorizes Maryland’s transportation network 

into six distinct context zones with corresponding 

pedestrian safety countermeasures. 

INTRODUCTION 

The Maryland Department of Transportation 

(MDOT) State Highway Administration (SHA) 

released the “Context Driven: Access & 

Mobility For All Users” planning and design 

resource in 2019 to provide practitioners 

with guidelines for creating safe, accessible, 

and effective multi-modal transportation 

systems. The Context Driven guide justifies 

its approach by describing the State’s 46 

percent increase in pedestrian fatalities 

from 2009 through 2018, the relationship 

between roadway speed and pedestrian 

crash severity, and the need to address 

safety through innovation. 

CONTEXT ZONES 

The MDOT guide describes six new context 

zones and how each relates to multimodal 

travel, especially pedestrians. Each context 

zone is a classification representing factors 

such as transportation infrastructure, 

land-use, and population density within a 

geographic area. The context categories 

were based, in part, on guidance from 

sources like the AASHTO Green Book (7th 

Edition), the Institute for Transportation 

Engineers, and the Florida Department of 

Transportation. The six context categories 

include from highest to lowest density: 

Urban Core, Urban Center, Traditional Town 

Center, Suburban Activity Center, Suburban, 

and Rural.

DEVELOPING THE CONTEXT ZONES 

Instead of applying existing national 

context zone guidance, MDOT tailored 

its classification system to fit Maryland’s 

specific community and land use 

characteristics. MDOT used Short Trip 

Opportunity Area (STOA) assessments 

that were developed as part of the 2040 

Maryland Transportation Plan to define 

each context zone classification. STOAs are 

locations where a short non-motorized trip—

such as walking—is likely to occur based on 

factors like population, employment, transit, 

schools, and zero-car households.

For more information, please contact:

MDOT SHA Context Guide Team

SHAContextGuide@mdot.maryland.gov

Figure 1. Graphic. Defining context zones. 

©MDOT
STEP: https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/ped_bike/step/

Case Study: MDOT Puts STEP Countermeasures into Context

When developing the six context zones, 

MDOT distinguished between access and 

mobility. Access is defined as how many 

places a person could travel to in a given 

amount of time, compared to mobility as 

how far a person could travel in a given 

amount of time. MDOT discovered that the 

presence of short trips (such as walking) 

directly related to the need for access, and 

also that over 70 percent of national fatal 

pedestrian crashes are in access-oriented 

areas. 

APPLYING THE GUIDE'S CONTEXT ZONES 

The guide’s six context zones each include 

location-specific example graphics and 

countermeasures in a report-card format. 

These context zone overviews display 

typical characteristics, real-world Maryland 

examples, proven treatments, focus areas 

that provide the greatest benefit (such as 

safety, connectivity, and traffic operations), 

and the balance between access and 

mobility. 

For example, the Suburban Activity 

Center zone equally balances short-trip 

non-motorized access with vehicle traffic 

mobility, while the Urban Center context 

zone heavily prioritizes access (figure 2). 

This balance depiction helps practitioners 

better understand road users, their needs 

within each context zone, and appropriate 

countermeasures.

The guide further illustrates how the FHWA 

Safe Transportation for Every Pedestrian 

(STEP) countermeasures can be integrated 

into each design context. For example, the 

Suburban Activity Center zone shows how 

the Pedestrian Hybrid Beacon (PHB) can 

improve mid-block crossings along busy 

arterials (figure 3). The guide also references 

the STEP countermeasure tech sheets and 

other FHWA resources for designing multimodal transportation systems.

References 

1Maryland Department of Transportation. (2019). Context Driven Access & Mobility for All Users. https://www.

roads.maryland.gov/OC/Context_Driven-Access-and-Mobility-For-All-Users.pdf. Last accessed May 4, 2020. 

Figure 2. Graphic. Balancing access and mobility within Suburban 

Activity Zones. 

Figure 3. Graphic. Excerpt from Suburban Activity Center context 

zone illustration. 

“Addressing pedestrian safety through the lens of 

context provides a means to proactively implement 

treatments in areas that have traditionally shown 

a higher propensity for pedestrian crashes. This 

allows us to get out ahead of the problems, rather 

than solely reacting to issues as they arise.” 

–Jeff Davis, MDOT SHA Design Engineer Cost 

Estimator 

©MDOT

©MDOT