About Dots & Dashes DVRPC & Public Participation FTA's PTP Grant Program

DVRPC & Public Participation in Transit Planning

Serving the Greater Philadelphia, Camden, Trenton area for more than 40 years, DVRPC is the federally designated metropolitan planning organization for the region who works to foster regional cooperation in a nine-county, two-state area. Representatives from city, county and state agencies work together to address key issues, including transportation, land use, environmental protection, information sharing and economic development.

The Delaware Valley Region is composed of two states, nine counties, three public transit systems and urban, suburban and rural areas. While the public can participate in transportation planning through traditional paradigms, there is a need to engage the public in a way that not only informs specific transportation projects, but also helps create an overall vision of access and mobility for the entire region. This project seeks to avoid the static public hearing / lecture / open house system where decisions on projects are preassembled through analysis and research and are then "toured" to sell to the public. In response, Dots & Dashes reflects a method of public outreach which captures regional priorities, educates stakeholders regarding the tradeoffs required to compose a plan, and provides consensual input into the public transit planning process.

A communicative, consensus building approach to public participation in planning takes stakeholders beyond their own immediate needs, or those of just a specific project. Instead, planning issues are viewed in a broader, more holistic way. This type of outreach is especially imperative to public transportation planning, which, by its very nature, crosses many communities in a given region, and affects many different stakeholder groups.