Aesthetic Initiative Measurement System: A Means to Achieve Context-Sensitive Design

The aesthetic character and visual quality of transportation corridors as seen by local and visiting travelers in Minnesota were investigated. Highway corridor landscapes were broadly defined to include the entire "view from the road." This definition is intended to contribute to the substance of context-sensitive design by selecting characteristics of landscapes seen from the road that will be relevant for highway design and planning. It assumes that highway travel experiences can have a significant effect on the perceived attractiveness of the places where people live, work, and travel. The aesthetic initiative measurement system (AIMS) was developed and tested to provide a method for the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) to use to understand and monitor how travelers perceive the attractiveness of Minnesota's highway corridors and to inform planning, design, construction, and maintenance decision making with specificity. Development of the AIMS methodology involved MnDOT staff from several disciplines and local citizens in understanding perceptions of the value of Minnesota's highway planning, design, engineering, and maintenance choices. AIMS researched the problem of identifying what landscape characteristics seen from the highway are noticed for their aesthetic quality by travelers. AIMS measured the relative aesthetic value of those characteristics and then used those measurements to document the benefits for design and planning to monitor and compare landscape aesthetic values across space and time.