Enhancing Public Participation in Regional Public Transportation Planning

Public participation in public transportation planning requires an active and ongoing relationship between the public and transportation planners, and a regional, or network wide approach. This report examines innovations by metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) across the country to enhance public participation for public transportation planning through efforts to enhance diversity in regional planning efforts, to improve knowledge gathering and sharing with the public across the region, and to improve incentives for public participation. Results of a survey of 384 MPOs and three case studies are presented. MPOs often excel in efforts to educate the public and to include the public in MPO governance, but innovations in long term planning and project specific efforts are limited. Moving to more advanced levels of public participation will require improved knowledge gathering and management techniques and a more robust understanding of the incentives for participation. The report presents a knowledge management exercise and an incentives diagnostic for MPOs to facilitate that effort.