Reducing the Negative Effects of Traffic on Communities: Public Engagement, Planners’ Engagement, and Policy Change

Abstract

With improved participation requirements and feedback methods, the doors to discussion have opened significantly over the decades to invite participation by those most affected by planning decisions. But the effectiveness of our outreach—and ultimate incorporation of local concerns into our planning—can be limited by the ways in which we define a project or problem and by our own blind spots. In working with an exceptionally organized and engaged community, the authors have identified these missed opportunities and suggest an increased role for planners in ensuring policy makers and decision makers understand local ideas and concerns as not merely opposition, but opportunity.