Webinar: Community Engagement in Transportation
April 11, 2023
This webinar discussed community engagement in transportation with speakers from the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation (Joint Office); Equitable Cities, an urban planning, public policy, and research firm; two state departments of transportation (DOT); and state representatives from the Clean Cities Coalition Network.
The panelists included:
- Monisha Shah, Joint Office
- Charles T. Brown, Equitable Cities
- Daina Mann, Arizona DOT
- Dianne Kresich, Arizona DOT
- Brett Howell, Oregon DOT
- Antoine Thompson, Greater Washington Regional Clean Cities
- Tyler Herrmann, Louisiana Clean Fuels.
The purpose of the webinar was to learn how to conduct meaningful, ongoing stakeholder engagement with underserved communities to ensure equitable outcomes for electric vehicle infrastructure deployment.
Participants left the webinar with a better understanding of best practices for community engagement in transportation, case studies on state implementation of community engagement strategies, examples of equity and environmental justice activities, and common challenges and strategies to overcome them.
Key takeaways
- The Justice40 initiative is an opportunity to ensure that the benefits of federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities.
- States can demonstrate meaningful and ongoing community engagement by establishing or co-creating goals, identifying and including underserved communities, creating space at the table, creating an ongoing process, and committing to effective implementation.
- The Joint Office United Support for Transportation (JUST) Lab Consortium, is undertaking a number of actionable research efforts to inform how we can incorporate equity into electric vehicle supply equipment infrastructure planning and implementation.
- Community engagement is an important aspect of deploying EV charging as it involves engaging with local communities to understand their needs and concerns and to build relationships based on mutual respect and trust.
- Meaningful public involvement is a process that proactively, not reactively, seeks full representation from the community.
- The input Arizona received at last year’s round of public engagement will be included into the new EV state plan.
- Washington D.C. engages with civil rights groups, as many of them are already fighting for equity on a regular basis.
- There is inequitable access to EVs, and it is critical to figure out how we can get input from communities who have lower rates of adoption of EVs.
Resources
- Public Involvement Techniques for Transportation Decision Making
- Virtual Public Involvement
- [How to Engage Low-Literacy and Limited-English-Proficiency Populations in Transportation Decision Making] (https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/publications/low_limited/webbook.pdf)
- [Every Place Counts Leadership Academy Transportation Toolkit] (https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/docs/ToolkitFinal2017.pdf) –[NEVI Frequently Asked Questions] (https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/alternative_fuel_corridors/resources/nevi_program_faqs.pdf)
- [Promising Practices for Meaningful Public Involvement in Transportation Decision-Making] (https://www.transportation.gov/priorities/equity/promising-practices-meaningful-public-involvement-transportation-decision-making)