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The National Academies

NCHRP 20-44(30) [Final]

Measuring the Effectiveness of Public Involvement at Five State Departments of Transportation: Implementation of the NCHRP Research Report 905 Toolkit
[ NCHRP 20-44 (NCHRP Implementation Support Program) ]

  Project Data
Funds: $200,000
Research Agency: PRR, Inc.
Principal Investigator: Dr. Bruce Brown
Effective Date: 11/11/2020
Completion Date: 4/29/2022

STATUS:  Project is complete.  The following files are available for download:

A report documenting project activities and lessons learned:  https://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/docs/NCHRP20-44-30FinalReport.pdf

A Quick Reference Guide to implementing the toolkit: https://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/docs/NCHRP20-44-30QuickReferenceGuide.pdf

A set of presentation slides summarizing the project: https://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/docs/NCHRP20-44-30ProjectSummaryPresentation.pptx

Implementation materials.  Included are a version of the survey in Spanish; a set of handouts for distribution to members of the public (in English and Spanish) that explains the toolkit and encourages participation; a handout for state DOT staff explaining the toolkit (in English):  https://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/docs/NCHRP20-44-30ImplementationMaterials.zip

Training materials. A .zip file containing materials for use by state DOTs; includes a training presentation, practice data set, guidelines for interpreting and using the data collected via the toolkit: https://www.dropbox.com/s/etk8txl9w3nxprs/NCHRP20-44-30TrainingMaterials.zip?dl=0

BACKGROUND
 
Transportation agencies engage in frequent and routine communication with the public, and public involvement is fundamental to the development of transportation plans and projects. NCHRP Research Report 905: Measuring the Effectiveness of Public Involvement in Transportation Planning and Project Development provides a toolkit to measure the effectiveness of a transportation agency’s public involvement activities. The toolkit is designed to collect feedback from the public on several indicators of effectiveness and to compare that feedback with the agency’s own perceptions. The combined responses can then be used to calculate scores for each indicator and an overall effectiveness index. This allows for systematic comparison of the effectiveness of different public involvement strategies over time, helping agencies identify needed adjustments in their efforts to engage with the public. 
 
The NCHRP Research Report 905 toolkit has three components:
1.  Survey for use with the public (suitable for paper and online use)
2.  Survey for use by the transportation agency to score itself
3.  Survey scoring tool

NCHRP Research Report 905 is available at:  https://www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs/179069.aspx

OBJECTIVE
 
The objective of this project was to provide staff at the five participating state DOTs--Arizona DOT, Georgia DOT, North Carolina DOT, Texas DOT, and Utah DOT--with the training and support needed to use the NCHRP Research Report 905 toolkit to:
  • Collect data from participants at public involvement events and from state DOT staff
  • Apply the survey scoring tool to analyze the data
  • Interpret the scoring tool results to evaluate the effectiveness of their public involvement events and programs.
The project also developed resources for use by additional state DOTs and their partners.
 

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