Key Outcomes & Insights
Digital community outreach may complement - but never substitute - in-person engagement value
With a highly constrained budget, it would have been tempting to favor online surveying and outreach on a relative cost basis. But, in-person workshops continually yielded the greatest depth and quality of feedback - a telling indication that interpersonal engagement evokes the strongest, most impactful reactions to further planning efforts.
Technical, cutting-edge, and "best practice" solutions are great - when applied in the right context. To get there, it is crucial to first understand and strive to meet fundamental community needs. For example: better transit service is not just state-of-the-art vehicles and stations, but starts with better lighting at and near those stops to a) improve environmental trust and safety, especially for riders in service economies with early and late hours, and b) promotes first- and last-mile access to the main transit routes in the first place.