Educating the Public on Climate Change Issues: DOT and MPO Best Practices

1. Introduction

This document summarizes outreach activities and public education initiatives used around the country by State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) to educate the public on transportation-related climate change issues. Best practices were gathered from a review of online documents, outreach materials, and telephone interviews. The purpose of this document is to highlight outreach approaches that FHWA Division staff can use to engage the public and other stakeholders such as elected officials on climate change issues. The following table summarizes the range of transportation-related outreach activities that are highlighted in this document that DOTs and MPOs have recently implemented.

DOT	State	Activity
Caltrans	California	Internal Teleconferences Internal Climate Change Listserv
Iowa DOT	Iowa	Transportation and Climate Change Presentation
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet	Kentucky	Climate Change /Livability/Air Quality Conference
NYSDOT	New York	IntraDOT Climate Change /Energy Website Public Climate Change Website Earth Day Fair Outreach
Oregon DOT	Oregon	ODOT Climate Change Technical Advisory Committee Efforts on Climate Change Factsheet Briefing Paper: ODOT's Efforts on Climate Change
MPO	Region	Activity
Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission	Philadelphia Region	Climate Change Initiatives Program Energy and GHG Reduction Toolkit
Metropolitan Transportation Commission	San Francisco Bay Area	Climate Initiatives Public Outreach Program K-12 Schools Climate Change Workshop Public Meeting: GHG Reduction Target
Puget Sound Regional Council	Seattle Area	Climate Change Adaptation White Paper Climate Change Website Project-Level Transportation GHG Evaluation Protocol
Mobile Metropolitan Planning Organization	Mobile Area	MPO Climate Change Work Group
Capitol Region Council of Governments	Hartford, CT Area	Municipal Summit on Climate Change
Mid-America Regional Council	Bi-state Kansas City Region	Climate Change Courses New Climate Change & Energy Use Policy Goal - Interactive Webpage for Public Rating
North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority	Northern New Jersey Region	Climate Change Working Group Climate Change Roundtable