On-Demand Webinar

2024 State of the Practice: 10 Public Engagement Trends in Transportation

Educational Credit: 1.0 (APA AICP CM)

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With public participation advancing so rapidly, it’s more important now than ever to monitor the state of the practice!

AASHTO, AMPO, APTA, NARC, NADO, TRB, MetroQuest, and Social Pinpoint recently joined forces to develop the first annual State of the Practice Report for public engagement in transportation agencies in the United States. This webinar tells all!

Over 430 practitioners from state Departments of Transportation (DOTs), Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), and a range of other regional and local transportation agencies shared their insights into current challenges, tools, and successful practices in the industry.

Are you looking for more successful ways to gather valuable feedback to inform your plans? Is your agency struggling to staff and resource public engagement? You’re not alone. How can you build awareness, trust, and transparency, while meeting new requirements and regulations? Are you satisfied with the diversity of participants in your outreach efforts? What role is hybrid engagement playing in the push to increase public participation? In this session we’ll explore answers to these questions and look to the future of public engagement.

Social Pinpoint host Dave Biggs joins Jamille Robbins from the North Carolina Department of Transportation, Amy Luft from COMPASS Idaho, and Lloyd D. Brown from HDR. Together, they reveal the top 10 key findings on the State of the Practice to help you stay ahead of the trends.

In this session, we explore:

Top public engagement challenges and barriers facing transportation agencies
How transportation agencies are staffing and resourcing public engagement
Key goals, objectives, and motivations for improving public participation
Using hybrid engagement (online surveys + public meetings) to increase participation
Ways to enhance diversity and engage traditionally hard to reach audiences
How technologies like AI are changing the future of community engagement

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The content was excellent and the panelists were insightful.

The strategies presented to increase public engagement were very timely.

The panel was wonderfully engaged and informative.

Public Involvement Leader | North Carolina DOT

Jamille Robbins

Jamille is the Public Involvement Leader at North Carolina Department of Transportation. He coordinates and supervises public outreach efforts throughout the department and prepares various visualization products developed by the Visualization Team. His job duties include overseeing the review and approval of all Community Characteristics Reports, Community Impact Assessments, and Indirect and Cumulative Effects reports, which are used by Project Planning Engineers to prepare Environmental Documents and for project permitting. Jamille is also a member of the Transportation Research Board’s Committee on Public Involvement and has served on the core team for FHWA’s Every Day Counts 5 Virtual Public Involvement Initiative.

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Communication Coordinator | Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho (COMPASS)

Amy Luft

As Communication Coordinator for the Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho (COMPASS), Amy manages all aspects of COMPASS’ communication program. Amy has extensive experience in coordinating public comment periods, writing and editing, public speaking, and working closely with the Executive Director on communicating agency initiatives and policies. Specific projects have included coordinating the COMPASS federal certification review in 2010, 2014, and 2018, organizing the annual COMPASS 101 workshop, coordinating the annual COMPASS education series, working with the National Association of Regional Councils to host their 2012 Executive Directors’ Conference, coordinating annual public comment periods for the Regional Transportation Improvement Program, coordinating all public comment for three updates to the regional long-range transportation plan, and managing an air quality outreach program for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality and the Air Quality Board.

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Associate Vice President, Strategic Communications Business Class Leader | HDR

Lloyd D. Brown

Based in Phoenix, Arizona, Lloyd currently serves at Associate Vice President of Strategic Communications and Business Class Leader at HDR. He is a seasoned communications professional with senior-level experience in media relations, strategic communication planning, organizational management, public affairs, and writing and editing. Lloyd is skilled at crisis management, as well as planning and implementing large and small promotional campaign. He served as the Director of Communications and Marketing for American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials from 2010-2021.

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Public Engagement Strategist | Social Pinpoint

Dave Biggs

Dave Biggs is an internationally recognized expert in public engagement and using software to enhance public participation for planning. As a co-founder of MetroQuest, he has authored books and papers on planning, sustainability, and public engagement. Dave is a frequent speaker at conferences and webinars, and contributor to industry journals, where he lends insight into best practices for optimizing public engagement outcomes.

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