State DOTs and MPOs should incorporate input from the public into decisionmaking, when warranted, with the understanding that not all parties will get exactly what they want. However, the public must receive assurance that its input is valued and considered in decisionmaking so that it feels that the time and energy expended in getting involved is meaningful and worthwhile. To do this, State DOTs and MPOs should both maintain records of public involvement activities, input, comments, and concerns as well as document requests for information and responses to input received during the public involvement process. Agencies can keep records and provide feedback in a variety of ways. Techniques for providing feedback include: regularly published newsletters, special inserts into general circulation newspapers, radio programs, telephone hotlines with project updates, public access television programs, and reports or publications describing how projects or programs are progressing.
Under the Environmental Protection Agency's transportation conformity regulations (40 CFR 51), when an MPO receives significant comments on a metropolitan transportation plan or TIP from the public or through the interagency consultation process, it must provide a summary, analysis, and report on how the comments were responded to as part of the final metropolitan transportation plan and TIP.
