Community Engagement
RELATED TOPICS: Plan Development, Complete Streets, Vision Zero, Equity, Health, Bike Share
Community engagement is integral to the success of transportation planning and should be considered at every stage of the planning process, from setting goals to conducting post-implementation evaluation. Community stakeholders in the planning review process can help identify safety concerns and secure support for proposed projects. Traditional public participation often takes the form of information sharing, with meetings and presentations. Effective community engagement involves reaching people in familiar settings, such as transit stops, community events, schools, and online platforms, and providing various opportunities to participate. Offering support services like translation and childcare, when needed, can help encourage participation.
Balancing a practitioner's technical expertise and the unique knowledge of community members can be a challenge. For the practitioner, it is important to ask for information and insights that residents can reasonably provide and incorporate into next steps. Whenever possible, practitioners should focus on building relationships and create a feedback loop to demonstrate how engagement has informed the plan and process.
Finding the time and venue for expressing ideas and concerns may be a challenge for community members. It can be intimidating to call an elected official, speak at a public meeting, or understand a complicated project schedule or funding program. A Resident's Guide for Creating Safer Communities for Walk and Biking includes facts, ideas, resources, and case studies to help residents learn about traffic safety problems and act to address their concerns.
Resources
Promising Practices for Meaningful Public Involvement in Transportation Decision-Making offers ways for practitioners to engage community members throughout all stages of transportation projects.
A Resident's Guide for Creating Safer Communities for Walk and Biking provides examples from communities working to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety.
Incorporating Qualitative Data in the Planning Process highlights tools, techniques, and resources that practitioners could use to gather input at different states of the planning or project delivery process.
Strategies for Engaging Community: Developing Better Relationships Through Bike Share offers guidance for building meaningful and effective relationships with communities through bike share programs.
More Resources >
Examples
Massachusetts Department of Transportation Public Participation Plan guides agency public participation efforts for transportation decision-making processes.
Citizen Planning Institute serves as the education and outreach extension of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Planning Commission and provides a seven-week course of ideas and tools for improving neighborhoods.
Engaging Communities to Focus on Building More Complete Streets examines an outreach effort for a regional agency in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
