Geography of Public Participation: Using Geographic Information Systems to Evaluate Public Outreach Program of Transportation Planning Studies

Abstract

How effective are public involvement programs in reaching a representative and sufficient sampling of public input for a planning study? While evaluations of public involvement programs are traditionally qualitative, this paper shows how geographic information systems (GIS) can provide an appropriate and productive means of quantitatively evaluating the effectiveness of an agency's outreach program. This study used both mailing list and comment data from the Dulles Corridor Rapid Transit Project Environmental Impact Statement of the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation to evaluate the agency's outreach program. The data were analyzed to determine the project's effectiveness in informing and receiving feedback from potential stakeholders. The analysis showed that 50% of the mailing list members lived within 1/2 mi of the proposed project. Inclusion were calculated, with household participation rates in census block groups near the project ranging from 0 to 82%. The Tysons Corner se...