Early and continuing public involvement allows the Local Government Agency (LGA) to be aware of public concerns as soon as possible, providing earlier opportunities to address issues and develop satisfactory solutions. When concerns are uncovered early in the planning process, many impacts can be avoided and minimized. Where impacts cannot be avoided or minimized, early engagement provides sufficient time and space to agree on and implement effective mitigation strategies, leading to better outcomes. The community must be informed about the constraints and tradeoffs involved in the transportation planning and project development process to understand decision making. Transparent communication between technical teams and the public, where the public is informed and involved, also helps attain trust and "buy-in" to transportation needs and purpose.
Procedure
Six key elements have been identified to help create effective public involvement:
- Create a clearly-defined purpose and objectives for initiating a public dialogue on transportation plans, programs, and projects;
- Identify who the affected public and other stakeholder groups are with respect to the plan(s), program(s), and project(s) under development;
- Identify techniques for engaging the public in the process;
- Design notification procedures which effectively target affected groups;
- Provide education and assistance techniques which result in an accurate and full public understanding of the transportation problem, potential solutions, and obstacles and opportunities within various solutions to the problem; and
- Demonstrate that decision makers have seriously considered public input.
For more information regarding Public Involvement, refer to the Public Engagement Toolkit.
