Abstract:
One of the most important of all transportation planning tasks is preparation and execution of a plan for public involvement. This task is particularly challenging when transportation improvement projects impact communities or neighborhoods in which an atmosphere of public distrust exists due to past or present experience. The need of public agencies to ensure that social equity issues are properly addressed in project planning demands the use of new and innovative techniques of public notification and participation. The Texas Department of Transportation has retained Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas (PBQ&D) to provide planning and engineering services for the proposed Kelly Parkway, an 8.8 mile link between US 90 and SH 16 in San Antonio, Texas. The project management plan prepared by PBQ&D for the Kelly Parkway Corridor Study includes a public involvement plan that combines traditional methods, such as public meetings and notification via print media, with new technologies and methods, such as creation of a public involvement Website and establishment of a public involvement office. Employment of new methodologies is particularly important in San Antonio in order to offset some negative expectations and perceptions that exist among citizens of the neighborhoods contained within the bounds of the study area. The public involvement plan prepared by PBQ&D also recognizes that the manner in which information is transmitted to the public is just as important as the message communicated, and was created with sensitivity to the needs of the target community, which includes a significant population that is Spanish speaking only. This paper provides timely information to transportation planners and allied professionals concerning a practical and innovative approach to public involvement planning that is already underway.
