CASE STUDY
Future Transportation Policy:
Inviting diverse voices to help shape the region’s Transportation Policy Plan
CLIENT: Metropolitan Council
Key Points
SDK was engaged by the Metropolitan Council (“Met Council”) to lead outreach in two phases of development of its Transportation Policy Plan (TPP) -- Goals and Objectives, and Policies and Actions. This was the first time in its history that the Council had actively solicited public input on the future direction and goals of the regional plan. SDK organized listening sessions and conducted in-depth interviews with leaders from equity, climate, social service, business and neighborhood organizations, corridor coalitions and water and land use groups. Input first contributed to shaping the goals and objectives of the TPP, and then on the specific Policies and Actions that would guide implementation of the goals.
Client Need
The Met Council plays a unique and critical role in the Twin Cities by guiding the strategic growth of the seven-county metro region across areas of regional planning, transit, transportation planning, environmental services and more. The Met Council’s regional plan is created every 10 years to guide development and planning across the region’s cities and counties, and the TPP is one of several sub-plans that guides transportation funding and policy. Over the past decade, the Met Council has undergone significant efforts to engage with diverse community perspectives in new ways, including stakeholder engagement around the development of the TPP.
SDK Contributions
SDK led a two-phased process to ensure that diverse perspectives such as equity leaders; Native American leaders, including the Urban Indian community; climate-friendly transportation advocates; land use groups; corridor coalitions; business associations; social service providers and neighborhood associations all had opportunities to give input on the TPP. First, SDK conducted interviews, listening sessions and a survey to provide input on the Goals + Objectives of the 2050 TPP.
For the second round of engagement, SDK distilled the TPP’s draft Policies + Actions into easily understandable language to ensure that diverse stakeholder perspectives could clearly understand the proposed actions and give meaningful feedback. The engagement in this phase included in-depth interviews and stakeholder listening sessions. SDK also conducted a listening session on the draft TPP with our nonprofit partners who had helped facilitate responses to the Travel Behavior Inventory (TBI), a federally mandated travel diary survey that also helps inform transportation policy. The additional input from TBI partners and SDK team members who contributed to survey-collection focused on practical lessons of transportation inequities and their consequences and added important community-first context to discussion of draft Policies and Actions.
The series of conversations provided critical data and information that SDK analyzed and synthesized into key themes and recommendations. The information was organized to provide direct feedback on the TPP’s five goal areas, and was presented to the Met Council staff and TPP Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) as part of the final input process.