Opportunities for two-way communication are most frequently provided through public meetings. Some additional ways of engaging the public in discussion about a project or providing outreach for a community engagement activity are identified below.
Non-Traditional Methods
To maximize community engagement, it can be helpful to take project information to public events or find public places to disseminate information. The following are just a few examples of non-traditional ways in which the public can find out project information.
Shopping malls and other retail centers are places where the team can reach out to a large number of people from diverse backgrounds.
Community fairs and sports events offer opportunities for public information events to increase exposure of a project or plan. Booths can be set up or flyers can be handed out at these events.
Community focal points, such as public libraries, parks, and community centers, are locations where teams can market project information.
Transportation hubs, especially for transit projects, provide a particularly appropriate locale where the team can be stationed at major transfer centers or heavily used stops to distribute information about the project or upcoming community engagement activities.
Drive-thru project displays can be a good way to distribute information to the motoring public.
Games can be used in public meetings to motivate people to interact and to encourage collaboration. These are often used by MPOs and other planning groups to increase participation, to illustration transportation funding processes, and to identify and prioritize community issues.
Games can be used in public meetings to motivate people to interact and to encourage collaboration. These are often used by MPOs and other planning groups to increase participation, to illustration transportation funding processes, and to identify and prioritize community issues.
Real-time polling is an audience response system that allows a meeting facilitator to ask a series of questions and provide real-time results of the responses on presentation slides that everyone can see
Surveys and Polls
Conducting periodic surveys and polls throughout the life of the project can help keep the public engaged and establish a baseline of public perceptions of a particular project. Surveys can collect both qualitative and quantitative information about public opinion concerning the project, and can be conducted via phone, online, text messaging, smartphone applications (apps) and at in-person meetings. User-friendly tools such as Poll Everywhere, and SurveyMonkey®, or others can be customized to fit the input sought. Non-monetary incentives, such as transit passes or event tickets, can motivate people to complete a public opinion survey.
Surveys can also be handed out in person and collected for analysis. Hardcopy surveys require significant staff time for printing, dissemination, collection, data entry, and analysis, whereas an online survey platform like those listed above automatically tally and cross tabulate responses and generate reports. Meetings provide an ideal opportunity to survey attendees on a variety of topics.