Use of Internet/social media for public involvement in project development

[hbelkins]

I'm part of a team that's working on a presentation on how to best use the Internet and/or social media for public involvement in project development. I'd be interested to see the opinions of those here on which states or agencies are using best practices and worst practices. I am a firm believer that you can learn more from examples of how NOT to do things than you can from examples of the best way to do things.

I'm not necessarily looking for how state DOTs use these resources to notify the public about road closures, construction delays, etc., but how they're used in the project development process, from choosing initial corridors for study to the selection of a final alignment alternative, the ROW acquisition and utility relocation processes, etc.

A colleague recently attended a conference on the use of social media by government agencies and one of the points they hammered home was, just because it's there does not necessarily mean you should use it. Does it really accomplish a purpose for a state DOT to have a Pinterest page? (And I know there are some DOTs that actually do have Pinterest sites).

What say you all? Who does a good job and who does a poor job? Provide links, please.

[Brandon]

I can see using them to solicit public comments on a project or for route selection.  Basically, the online ways of connecting with people become another avenue by which you can get public comments other than simply holding meetings that few may go to.

[J N Winkler]

Here's a thumbnail "new media" case study--the public meeting held in February 2011 for the I-235/13th Street flyover project in Wichita:

http://www.wichita.gov/Government/News/Pages/2011-02-10a.aspx

This is the City of Wichita press release.  To my knowledge, the City of Wichita did not engage in any other project publicity online, such as a project website.  KDOT's Wichita office also publicized the meeting through multiple posts on its Twitter feed (WichitaKDOT).  KDOT Wichita now has a Facebook page, but did not in 2011, so the meeting was not publicized through that avenue.  The Wichita Eagle ran an article the morning of the meeting day:

http://www.kansas.com/2011/02/14/1719665/flyover-will-link-13th-st-i-235.html

The Eagle then reported on the meeting the following day:

http://www.kansas.com/2011/02/14/1720825/residents-get-look-at-design-for.html

I attended the meeting in person.  It was in an open house format.  Those present included representatives of HNTB, which prepared the interchange justification study (called a "break in access study" in Kansas), and the City of Wichita, which was acting as the lead agency at this point in the project development process.  They were wearing tags giving their names and institutional affiliations.  The only KDOT employee I recognized was Tom Hein, the public affairs person for the Wichita office, whom I think was there only in an informal capacity since he was not wearing a name tag.

At the meeting itself, the HNTB representatives were playing a video rendering of the interchange in its finished state, and a hard copy of the finished break-in-access study was available on a table for members of the public to study.  There were also comment forms with pens and a box for receiving finished comments.

My sense, after arriving at the meeting as it was getting started and leaving 45 minutes later, was that it could have been improved as a public communications exercise.

Both the video rendering and the break-in-access study could have, and should have, been put online.

The meeting was held more than a month after FHWA approved the interchange concept, so anyone who read the advance publicity would have known that the officials and consultant's representatives present at the meeting were not there to hear candid comments about the adopted design.  This encourages members of the public who have reservations about the design (as I did) to come to the meeting half-angry, feeling patronized about having a dog-and-pony show put on for them.  The anticipation of the blowback that can result encourages the officials to appear in a tense, defensive state of mind.  I happened to arrive at the same time as one of the City representatives and saw him getting out of his car in the parking lot, before he had a chance to get his party face on, and I was struck by how angry he looked.

I also had the impression that many of the people who were at the meeting knew some of the representatives personally and had come for the purpose of offering congratulations or, given the possibility of clash with members of the public, moral support.  The problem with this is that if you are standing aside and holding court for admirers, you don't look as approachable as you should to people who feel very inhibited about walking up to complete strangers and broaching issues that may or may not turn out to be thorny.

The I-235/13th Street project is designed to mitigate a lack of crossings of the Big Ditch (a flood control canal which is a major discontinuity in the city street grid) by providing a new restricted-movement interchange with I-235 that is of direct benefit primarily to westsiders who commute to downtown Wichita.  Its secondary purpose is to relieve the overloaded I-235/Zoo Boulevard interchange, which serves commuter traffic for two arterials--13th and 21st Streets--and is adjacent to the only crossing of the Big Ditch for three miles.

For reference, here is a Google Maps extract of the project area at a zoom level that shows the adopted design (currently under construction):

235-87 KA-2040-01

From the standpoint of public involvement, this layout has several problems.  First, it is not the expected solution, which had always been a bridge to unite the two segments of 13th Street on either side of the Big Ditch.  Second, it involves a restricted-access interchange which does not serve north-to-west (or west-to-north) movements.  Third, it looks like an enabler for added sprawl on the west side and, despite its red-state location, there are citizens in Wichita who worry about such a thing.

The break-in-access study addresses the first two issues by arguing convincingly that the simple bridge solution would divert little traffic from I-235/Zoo, increase motorist delay in the Zoo corridor, and have unacceptable environmental impacts on the currently rather secluded residential neighborhood in the wedge between Zoo and I-235.  It also presents the results of traffic simulations which show that the adopted solution is the one that minimizes delay the most.  In short, it should have been put online where it would have found a much larger audience, and potentially done much more for public enlightenment, than as a hardcopy on a table in a one- or two-hour open house with dozens of people milling around.

As it happened, the only conversation I actually had with a representative was a pleasant but brief one with Mike Jacobs, the Special Projects Engineer for the City of Wichita, which had little to do with the project directly but instead focused on possible next steps for I-235/Zoo Boulevard.  We discussed the possibility of conversion to a SPUI or roundabout interchange but the principal takeaway was that very little can be done unless the K&O RR can be persuaded to vacate the line that parallels Zoo Boulevard.  Mr. Jacobs was doing all of the things that officials are supposed to do at open-house meetings like this--circulating widely, projecting an air of easy approachability, and not taking too long on any one conversation.

[corco]

One thing IowaDOT has been doing is creating new social media accounts for every major construction project and using those comments in the process. They're one of the more progressive DOTs on this front, from my limited knowledge (I looked into this briefly in a public participation class in grad school, but didn't do anything significant with it)

Their vision for that is on page 21: http://www.iowadot.gov/program_management/StatePublicParticipationProcess.pdf - meat excerpted here:

The Iowa DOT is transitioning into using social media to engage public participation. The Iowa DOT
already has a Facebook and Twitter account, but by creating a Facebook page or a Twitter feed for
specific projects, these efforts will allow public participants to discuss the project or plan with one
another, where in the past, most participants would not know what another participant wrote or
emailed in. In this setting, communication is real-time and allows citizens to easily post their input and
participate in the process; and builds a relationship between participants and the project manager as
he/she will be able to participate in discussions, add updates, and feature photos and drawings
simultaneous of all discussion.

Here's an example- http://www.iowadot.gov/i380/

Others... WSDOT has a massive social media campaign, but they pretty much use it for PR without officially considering comments brought forth in that arena- from the horse's mouth, as an example. The objective is "education" as opposed to the actual solicitation  of input, and as a member of the public sector you know as well as I do that the word "education" doesn't do much to consider input.  http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/B101D7F7-D4E9-4B85-B590-0ED1A1B986DB/0/WSDOT2011_FHWA_Annual_Update_Accomplishment_Report_Final.pdf

Social Media: Outreach and public relations for SR 520 tolling includes a strong social
media presence. We informed and educated the public about Good To Go! and tolling via
Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube. During this period we used social media outlets
to make information available to ethnic audiences by doing the following:
- We've shared information with local ethnic communities that are followers of
local ethnic organizations that have social media platforms.
- We identified organizations from our database with a social media presence, and
connected with them via Twitter, Facebook, and other social media outlets.
- Posted translated versions of Good To Go! print and radio advertisements on the
website.

[deathtopumpkins]

I think MassDOT does a decent job, posting construction updates and notices on social media (facebook, twitter, etc.), project websites, the Commonwealth transportation blog, and even making sure it gets out to the news media (e.g. Boston.com usually runs a story about a significant construction event).

I can't, however, say if they've ever actually solicited comments through these mediums, or used the comments they've received.

[froggie]

can see using them to solicit public comments on a project or for route selection.  Basically, the online ways of connecting with people become another avenue by which you can get public comments other than simply holding meetings that few may go to.

This.

In my experience, Facebook and Twitter can be used to get announcements and information out and to canvas for public input.  Twitter especially is useful for quick announcements (i.e. traffic conditions) and if you need quick "eyes on" a given situation, but this works best where you have "crowdsourcing" (i.e. lots of users within a geographic area)...more useful in a city than it would be in a rural area.

[theline]

can see using them to solicit public comments on a project or for route selection.  Basically, the online ways of connecting with people become another avenue by which you can get public comments other than simply holding meetings that few may go to.

This.

In my experience, Facebook and Twitter can be used to get announcements and information out and to canvas for public input.  Twitter especially is useful for quick announcements (i.e. traffic conditions) and if you need quick "eyes on" a given situation, but this works best where you have "crowdsourcing" (i.e. lots of users within a geographic area)...more useful in a city than it would be in a rural area.

INDOT does a great job communicating through Facebook. Each district has its own page. They report conditions and solicit comments. Here's the one for my area: https://www.facebook.com/#!/INDOTNorthwest

[Scott5114]

Be as open as possible, and always remember that what you might not find important might be exactly what someone in the public is looking for. For example, it might not seem important to have easy access to a fully dimensioned drawing of the state highway shield, but if someone is looking to create an accurate graphic, that is something they will be looking for.

ODOT provides a few directories of PDFs with the exact change orders for selected highways as approved by the transportation commission (with exact dates). That's incredibly helpful for researching history, and it would be nice if more states did something like it.