MPO

The Project | Overview | Organization | Target Area Description | Maps of the Target Area

The Project

Mental Models
How communities have been thinking about transportation issues and agencies.
What agency staff tend to assume about the communities and how their work affects them.
Building a model for better understanding and effective action.
Metropolitan Planning Organization

Purpose
“Historically under-served” segments of the community — usually low income and minority — are the least likely to offer public input, but may have the greatest transportation needs. The best way for transportation planners to know what these needs are and address them effectively is to be able to have first-hand information. The purpose of this project is to identify, implement and document outreach strategies that are effective in reaching the segment of the community that has been under-served in the past in order to get that first-hand information from them. A second purpose is to provide guidance to the transportation planning community as they develop ways for reaching out to under-served populations in their area.

Funding for this project came from a grant from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the San Antonio - Bexar County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO).

Goals
The goals of this project are to:
• Promote and strengthen participation in the transportation planning process by those populations — typically low income and minority — that have historically been under-served by this process.
• Create a “tool kit” of outreach strategies that can be adopted by other agencies seeking to improve the participation of traditionally under-served populations in the transportation planning process.
• Demonstrate the benefits of participation — as well as the pitfalls of non-participation — in the planning process by members of the community, especially the historically under-served, to that population and to the agencies affected.
• Provide documentation of the project’s findings in the form of a CD-ROM that can be easily distributed as well as transferred to a web site if desired. The Guidance Manual will be available in the public libraries as well.

Objectives
The objectives of the project are to:
• Receive an increased percentage of projects proposed from low income/minority populations in underserved areas.
• Provide residents of low income/minority areas with information about the transportation planning process.
• Increase the number of low income/minority residents in underserved areas who participate throughout the process.
• Increase the number of organizations representing low income/minority populations with which the MPO works closely.
• Create a pool of people in low income/minority communities in underserved areas that can serve as liaisons on issues related to transportation between their communities and the MPO and its member agencies.
• Provide information that uses layperson’s terms and is understandable.

Organization
The project had a Study Oversight Committee with representatives from the Texas Department of Transportation, the City of San Antonio, Bexar County, the Alamo Area Council of Governments, VIA Metropolitan Transit, Alamo Workforce Development, the Texas Department of Human Services, and the MPO. The role of the committee was to oversee and guide the project as it progressed.

A consultant experienced in public participation was selected through a typical Request for Proposals (RFP) process. The consultant was contracted to design, develop and implement, or assist in the implementation, of the different components of the project.

The consultant worked closely with the Study Oversight Committee (SOC) from the inception of the project. The SOC either guided or confirmed the consultant’s proposed actions and intentions. The SOC would meet periodically to review the activities to date and give input and feedback on future activities.