OFFICIAL SITE OF THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY
STEP 2: Engaging the Community
Meaningful community engagement as part of your Community Transportation Needs Assessment (CTNA) offers the opportunity to enhance your understanding of residents’ transportation needs and gain insight on community preferences for mobility solutions. Decades of exclusionary planning processes have not considered the transportation needs of under-resourced communities such as low-income populations, people of color, and people with limited English proficiency, leaving them without access to adequate transportation options.
This step will add meaning and additional context to the data and research phase of Step 1. Additionally, information gathered from Step 1 can be used to tailor engagement activities to your community members more effectively.
“You have to cultivate relationships with people who can see more than you and who can see differently than you, so that together your co-imagination becomes something that actually works for everyone.”
-Adrienne Marie Brown
A. Set Engagement Goals
Clearly outline your goals for community engagement and keep them in mind throughout the process. These could include:
- Understanding residents’ transportation needs
- Verifying existing data through experiences and observations from community members
- Gaining insight on community preferences for solutions
- Building partnerships and trust with community members
Effective community engagement requires an open and transparent process. Organizers should treat participants with integrity and respect, valuing their voice and experience. Additionally, be ready to listen and change approaches if needed to ensure a truly productive engagement.
Using Engagement to Gain Insight on eMobility Perspectives
Residents may be unfamiliar with shared-use mobility options, like carshares, microtransit, and micromobility services. Using electric vehicles for these programs (i.e. eMobility) adds another complexity that people may be hesitant to support due to lack of awareness.
You can assess residents’ interests in and perceptions of eMobility by directly asking residents if they understand what these services are and presenting different models to see which they’d be comfortable using. You can also include questions about electric vehicles to see if residents are supportive of this technology or have concerns that can be addressed.
Sometimes labels detract from your overall goals. Explain topics in simple, easily understood terms rather than solely calling out specific eMobility models. Adding more general questions not directly related to a model may also help determine if a solution would be suitable.
- Find out where people are going and when are they are traveling to see if there are already transportation options meeting their needs.
- Ask how they currently travel to destinations. If people are already using the bus, a carshare vehicle, or a bicycle, they are more likely to accept the electric form of these models.
- Some models rely on mobile apps and a debit or credit card for use. Knowing if residents have a smartphone and bank account will help determine if these models could be considered or if they would need to be modified for wider accessibility.
Below is an introduction to some different eMobility models with ideas to keep in mind for each during your community engagement. More about these models will be explored in Step 3.
Carshare allows users to rent a vehicle for a short time (for example to get groceries, go to an appointment, run errands, visit family, etc.)
- Since users will be driving, it may be important to know the percentage of residents that can drive a vehicle themselves.
- Many carshare services use a mobile app for reserving a vehicle and require a debit or credit card to pay for the service. Asking questions about access to a smartphone and bank account could help determine if carshare would work for residents, or if a potential carshare service would need modifications to be more accessible.
Fixed-Route Shuttle Services usually operate along a set route, making scheduled stops at designated locations.
- Residents who already use a bus service may be comfortable with a new shuttle service to reach more destinations. You could ask about current transit use or likelihood to use transit if it were available.
- Incorporating questions about where people are trying to go and when they are traveling could help determine which route and schedule would best serve residents.
Micromobility allows users to rent electric bikes or scooters for short-term use.
- Include questions about current bike or scooter use, as people who already use these to reach destinations may be more comfortable with micromobility.
- Using electric-powered options can expand accessibility for older adults, people with disabilities, or others who are not able to use a conventional bike.
Microtransit offers on-demand rides that group together riders heading in the same general direction and often operates in zones to keep wait times low and improve reliability.
- Include questions about likelihood to use public transit and compare this data to the area’s population and employment density. Zones with a high percentage of these groups and a lower density are most likely to benefit from Microtransit, while areas with a higher density could be good candidates for a fixed-route service.
eMobility Hubs often include a mix of electric transportation options coupled with EV charging stations and amenities for people to use between destinations. Transportation options may include carshare and micromobility vehicles available for rent, and the location could serve as a designated shuttle stop or include areas for ride-hailing drivers to pick up and drop off riders, charge their vehicles, and take a break between rides.
- These sites are often located near mass transit to promote connectivity and facilitate longer trips. If there are existing mass transit options in your community, you could ask residents if they currently use these services and how they normally get to and from these locations.
- You can use engagement to see which transportation options people prefer at an eMobility Hub and what kinds of amenities would be helpful (i.e. restrooms, places to eat and shop, sheltered seating, free Wi-Fi, cell phone chargers, storage lockers, etc.).
- Engagement could also provide organizers with ideas for locations where an eMobility Hub would be most beneficial for community members.
B. Identify Your Target Audience
Engagement methods should aim to reach all residents of your community and target hard-to-reach demographic groups, such as young adults, low-income families, and limited English proficient residents who have traditionally not participated in transportation planning.
Consider which marginalized groups to prioritize and choose partners, such as local community organizations, that can help increase engagement.
DEP maintains New Jersey’s Environmental Justice Directory, a public database comprising of community-based organizations, advocates, and concerned residents with interest in environmental justice. The directory aims to facilitate robust engagement and collaboration between environmental justice stakeholders, state and local government, and companies involved in environmental justice initiatives across the state.
C. Administer Engagement Activities
Community engagement should include in-person or virtual community events complemented with survey data to understand community perspectives on transportation needs and mobility solutions.
To broaden participation, use inclusive and accessible outreach methods, such as:
- Language translation and interpretation services for events, surveys, and printed materials
- Childcare and transportation for in-person activities or virtual attendance options
- Hosting in-person activities in community-centered locations (bookstores, libraries, etc.)
- Compensating participants for their time through incentives like cash and gift cards
- Scheduling events on days and times that are convenient for community members
- Choosing venues that are ADA accessible
Using a variety of methods to engage the community will help reach more people.
Surveys
Surveys are often go-to tools to collect detailed information from a large group of people. Help broaden responses to your surveys by:
- Using both digital and paper formats
- Distributing surveys in a variety of ways (website, social media, email, during public meetings and events, etc.)
- Compensating survey respondents with cash or a gift card
Resources & Examples
California has developed 3 sample surveys for CTNAs as a tool for applicants of their Clean Mobility Options Voucher Pilot Program to determine residents’ preferences for shared transportation. You can use these as a guide to develop your own survey:
Public Events
Hosting events or partnering with existing community events is a great way to connect with community members. Focus your event planning on ways to reach the target audiences identified in Section B in order to include populations traditionally left out of transportation planning processes.
Examples of public events could include:
- Community forums and open houses
- Public workshops
- Listening sessions
- Partnering with or tabling at existing events, like municipal festivals, sustainability fairs, and farmers markets
- Webinars or virtual meetings
- Town Hall Meetings
Resources & Examples
- Zoning Workshop held to build knowledge of zoning and development and to support community-based organizations playing proactive roles around land use, design, and development review (Newark, NJ)
- The public engagement process for the Broadway Corridor Improvement Study included a visioning workshop and public open house (Knoxville, TN)
- River North-Streeterville Transit Study used public open houses and pop-up meetings as part of their community engagement (Chicago, IL)
Innovative Methods
Using inventive engagement approaches can help you collect unique input from community members. These are also great ways to help your activity stand out from the traditional forms of public involvement.
These could include:
- Focus group discussions with specific members of your community
- Pop-up events
- Mobility demonstrations
- In-person or online community mapping
Resources & Examples
- Focus groups with youth and limited English speakers (Portland, OR)
- ActiveSGV pop-up events to interview residents (San Gabriel Valley, CA)
- E-cargo bike demonstration project (Long Beach, CA)
- Virtual reality eMobility engagement (Sacramento, CA)
- Fast Forward Mobile Outreach Bus (Tulsa, OK)
- ArcGIS StoryMaps for crowdsourcing
- Community mapping examples in Jersey City, NJ and Oakland, CA
Choosing Your Approach
The type of engagement approaches you select will depend on several factors:
| The target audience and their ability and interest to participate | |
| Your budget and access to resources or supplies needed for the activities | |
| Availability of staff and volunteers to help with activities and promotion | |
| Facilities, locations, and online platforms available to hold the events |
Promotion & Outreach
Consider how to advertise your engagement activities to enhance participation for each approach you choose. The length of promotion will depend on the types of activities, with larger public events warranting more advance notice and reminders. Outreach methods may include:
| Non-digital communication methods, such as mail, telephone calls, posting flyers, event signage near the venue, etc. | |
| Social Media content, either through existing community pages or by creating a new account for your project. If your organization has the ability to create paid advertisements on social media, many of these platforms enable you to target ads for specific groups based on demographics and interests. | |
| E-mail and digital newsletters. Some towns and community organizations have existing email lists that can be used to spread the word. | |
| Websites serve as a great way to house information related to your CTNA and engagement activities. You could add a webpage to an existing website or create a new website for your project. | |
| Word-of-mouth endorsements by community ambassadors. Recruit or encourage staff and volunteers to promote the activity to family, friends, and community members. |
Recording Engagement Information
Document the engagement process and gather both qualitative and quantitative data gained from each activity. This may include:
- Activity details, such as location, date and time, number of staff or volunteers needed and their roles, and the overall process taken to organize the activity
- Number of attendees and participant demographics
- Concerns and input received from participants
- General observations noted during the activity
It may be helpful to have a designated staff member or volunteer take notes during the event or hold a brief meeting after the event for volunteers to discuss their observations.
- Clean Mobility Options | A Guide for Developing a Community Engagement Plan
- Digital.gov | Communication resources and best practices for sharing information with the public
- Forth Mobility | Webinar on Increasing Community Impact with Meaningful Engagement
- Joint Office of Energy and Transportation | Community Engagement Tips for EV Infrastructure Deployment
- NJTPA | Public Engagement Toolkit
- Shared-Use Mobility Center | Community Engagement Module
- U.S. DOT | Promising Practices for Meaningful Public Involvement in Transportation Decision-making