Transportation Planning Process Resource Guide

Tools and Techniques

• FHWA's Interactive website with a variety of public involvement techniques.
• FHWA's "Public Involvement Techniques for Transportation Decision-Making," 1996. this collection of techniques provides the building blocks agencies can use to craft an effective public involvement program.
• International Association For Public Participation (IAP2) website offers general information and practitioner tools.
• VA Tech's "Partnerships and Participation in Planning" provides an introduction to partnerships and participation and a history of citizen involvement in public decision making.
• "Planning Games and Public Involvement", many simulations and games have been developed for use by the MPO and others in public transportation. This paper outlines basic instructions for some of the most useful games, including "Strings and Ribbons," Project Selection Survey," "Color Dot Survey," "Group Grope," and "Wheel of Needs."
• Structured Public Involvement: Problems and Prospects for Improvement, Kentucky Transportation Center, this paper proposes Structured Public Involvement which is designed to ensure that public involvement is meaningful to the professional and the public and sets forth principles of SPI and a details series of steps useful in engaging the general public in a complex design or planning problem.