Public Engagement Report
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METRO CONNECTS King County Metro Long-Range Plan Public Engagement Report King County Department of Transportation Communications June 2016 Long-Range Plan Public Engagement Report – Outreach Plan and Activities King County Metro Transit Contents Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 3 Advisory Groups .............................................................................................................................. 10 Community Advisory Group ..................................................................................................................... 10 Technical Advisory Committee ................................................................................................................ 12 Overview of Three Phases of Public Outreach ........................................................................................... 13 Phase One: Visioning, February to May 2015 .......................................................................................... 13 Phase Two: Alternatives, June to December 2015 .................................................................................. 19 Phase Three: Draft Plan, January to June 2016 ....................................................................................... 30 Appendices ...................................................................................................................................... 45 Appendix A: Visioning Event Notes ............................................................................................................. 45 Appendix B: Visioning Phase Survey Results Summary ............................................................................... 51 Appendix C: Alternatives Phase Open House Notes ................................................................................... 62 Appendix D: Alternatives Phase ESJ Roundtable Notes .............................................................................. 67 Appendix E: Alternatives Phase Survey Summary ....................................................................................... 69 Appendix F: Draft Plan Survey Summary ..................................................................................................... 84 Appendix G: Community Advisory Group Meeting Notes ......................................................................... 120 Appendix H: Technical Advisory Committee Meeting Notes .................................................................... 147 Appendix I: Draft Plan Formal Comment Letters ...................................................................................... 179 Appendix J: Press Releases and Media Coverage ...................................................................................... 218 2 Long-Range Plan Public Engagement Report – Public Feedback Summary 3 King County Metro Transit Executive Summary Overview This public engagement report describes how King County Metro Transit engaged diverse county residents and transit riders, as well as transportation agencies and jurisdictions in shaping a shared vision for the future of transit service in King County and the region through 2040. Over the course of 18 months Metro embarked on a robust, three-phase outreach process that gathered input from a broad range of people and stakeholders throughout King County, including the general public, transit- dependent and traditionally underserved people, cities, and regional transportation partners. The report summarizes how the public and stakeholders were informed about opportunities to provide input, how input was collected, and the feedback that Metro received that shaped the METRO CONNECTS ong-range plan. Outreach and Engagement Plan In the fall of 2014, Metro developed a strategic engagement plan (SEP) to guide public outreach that would continue through final County Council adoption of the long-range plan. The SEP outlined the goals and objectives of the public outreach, identified key milestones in the planning process, and described public engagement activities. It proposed a three-phase approach to engage the general public, traditionally underserved and transit-dependent communities, jurisdictions and key stakeholders in the plan’s development and called for establishing a Community Advisory Group that with members who represent diverse rider viewpoints and a Technical Advisory Committee that represented jurisdictions throughout King County and regional transportation partners. A detailed description of the SEP is provided on page 8. Notifications – How we let people know they could participate People were notified about opportunities to participate and weigh in about the long-range plan development in the following ways throughout the public outreach: News release – sent to media contacts, including ethnic media. Website – developed to engage viewers and tell a story about why a long-range plan matters, why we’re creating one now, and how they can be involved in the process. Targeted ESJ Outreach – sent to approximately 800 community partners including groups that serve traditionally underserved and transit dependent communities, inviting them and those they serve to participate in the long-range plan outreach by taking the survey, applying to be on the Community Advisory Group, signing up to receive notifications, and offering a presentation or briefing meeting. Follow-up phone calls were made to key groups to encourage Community Advisory Group participation. See page ESJ Roundtable formed a group of ESJ stakeholder groups that we met with during the Alternatives Phase of outreach and reached out to regularly with updates and to seek feedback. See page 26 for more information. Translation and Alternative Formats - Draft Plan handout was translated into Spanish and distributed at events, to ESJ Roundtable contacts, and posted online. All materials included 4 multi-lingual phone line for Spanish interpretation and contact information for alternative formats. Notification to jurisdictions – sent to 39 mayors and transit agency partners inviting them to designate a staff person to serve on the Technical Advisory Committee. In subsequent phases of outreach, committee members acted as the liaison to their jurisdiction about the long-range plan. Social media – posts on King County Metro Facebook and Twitter and on the Metro Matters blog about the purpose of the long-range plan and how to be involved. Transit Alert notifications – email or text message sent to Transit Alert subscribers describing the project and inviting recipients to participate. Included multi-lingual phone line for Spanish interpretation and contact information for alternative formats. Community visioning event poster – posted at community locations such as libraries to publicize the spring community visioning event. Printed one-page handout – regularly updated for each phase of outreach and distributed at community events and electronically. Community fairs and festivals – long range-plan information was available at the Metro table at community fairs and festivals throughout King County. Bus ads and on-bus rack cards – for the Draft Plan Phase Outreach, exterior ads were put on Metro buses and cards were placed in brochure racks on buses for riders to take. They provided information about how to participate. Tabling at bus bases – for the Alternatives Phase Outreach, planning staff members visited bus bases to talk to operators about the long-range plan and distribute paper surveys. Community Advisory Group – CAG members helped to spread the word in their communities about upcoming opportunities to participate. Technical Advisory Committee – TAC members worked with their city communications staff to spread the word in their communities about upcoming opportunities to participate. Summary of outreach activities and what we heard during each phase of outreach Visioning Phase – February to May 2015 How we received feedback Website views: 10,300+ Online survey responses: 2,900+ Social media: 4000+ people reached Visioning event posters and notifications sent to 8,500+ Email/text message notifications: 21,000+ Community contacts notified: 800+ Community Advisory Group applicants: 150+ Community Advisory Group meetings: 2 Technical Advisory Committee members: 75+ Technical Advisory Committee meetings: 2 Visioning event attendees: 200 5 Themes from the public feedback during the Visioning Phase of outreach When asked what changes are most important to people when they think about a future transit network, the following are the top 10 most common items. Learn more about what people told us during the Visioning Phase of outreach on page 14. 1. Extend light rail 2. Improved bus frequency 3. Grade-separated or lane-separated transit 4. More off-peak service 5. More reliable service 6. Connection between multiple modes of transit 7. Affordable fares 8. More routes/buses 9. Better service to outlying communities 10. More east-west connections Alternatives Phase – June to December 2015 How we received feedback Website views: 15,000+ Social media: 3000+ people reached Open house attendees: 350 ESJ organizations notified: 40+ ESJ Roundtable attendees: 5 City and stakeholder briefings: Email/text message notifications: 21,000+ Community contacts notified: 800+ Online survey responses: 6,100+ Community Advisory Group meetings: 4 Technical Advisory Committee meetings: 10 three sub-regional