AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF STATE HIGHWAY AND TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS

Volume 2, Supplement to “Making the Case for Transportation Investment and Revenue”, produced under the National Cooperative Highway Research  Program, NCHRP 20-24 (62)A.

See also Volume 1, Strategies and Messages: Three Case Studies of Successful Campaigns to Raise Revenue for Transportation.

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Overview: Red Light, Green Light

“Traffic makes me feel trapped…it deprives me of my time and my freedom.”
-D.C. Participant

When we began this research, we expected a rough road.

It would be hard to overstate the national mood against large government programs or new taxes right now, for any reason.

But we found there is a new way to talk about transportation that, if done correctly, can not only generate support for revenue increases, it can get  people excited about them. But first you have to acknowledge some fundamental truths:

• Distrust of Washington and big government means all decisions need to be perceived as being made at the state and local levels – not federally driven.
• The priorities of AASHTO and other transportation professionals are different from those of voters and taxpayers. So you must adopt language that is relevant to them, which means the traditional messages about maintenance and even relieving congestion simply aren’t going to be as effective right now.

To succeed, you must provide a vision of how things can and should be. Once, driving across America was the essence of freedom. You could move in a way not possible in other developed countries. But over time, as everything else has gotten faster, and cars still move at the same speed, transportation has become something that seems relatively restrictive. It hasn’t evolved with the times. It’s holding us back.

It is, in effect, a red light.

The solution, as far as citizens are concerned, is to make transportation more technologically advanced, more efficient. To increase the green lights they encounter.

There’s a word for this kind of free, unrestricted movement: MOBILITY.

Transportation experts commonly use the word “mobility.” But in an age of increasingly mobile technology, “mobility” may have a different meaning than it does within the professional community.

To succeed, you cannot address funding initiatives using the language of tax and revenue; it’s about the benefits of what those dollars will bring, and one of the most resonant benefits is the ability to be more mobile.

We found that if you effectively communicate the value of a smarter, more efficient transportation system that addresses the powerlessness and limitations imposed by the current system, then people are actually willing to PAY FOR those benefits. This is an important messaging distinction: People may not support “raising revenue” or taxes, but they are willing to “pay for” things that are important to them.

Your strongest message is one that capitalizes on a word the technology industry has turned into a synonym for freedom. We now have mobile phones and mobile computing that let us do in a park or our living rooms what we used to need an office for.

Mobility and technology aren’t the extent of the transportation story, though. People also want to know that it will be sustainable – both physically and financially. That it will be locally driven and guarantee accountable spending. That it will provide jobs and develop the economy. And they don’t want to hear about routine maintenance.

It’s important to note that the scope of our research was limited. We went to three major metropolitan areas (Charlotte, Denver, Orlando) where employment and the economy are doing relatively well, and where residents aren’t all that angry about traffic congestion. And while we also spoke to people in Washington, D.C., where traffic is bad, people inside the Beltway don’t always think like the rest of the country. These cities were chosen because, among other things, they are representative of much of the country. But we didn’t study any rural areas, or any areas hit particularly hard by the recession. For these reasons, it’s important to take these recommendations as a guide, and to keep in mind that crafting plans for specific states or metropolitan areas is going to require research specific to the issues and concerns of those residents.

With that said, we’ve developed a communications strategy that can be tailored to excite people across the country about the possibility of a better transportation experience.

The Five Keys to Transportation Funding
1. Sustainable mobility
2. Technology and modernization
3. Long-term local planning
4. Accountable spending
5. Jobs and economic development

Download full version (PDF): The New Language of Mobility Vol II

About the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials
www.aashto.org
“The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials is the voice for transportation and catalyst for organizational and technical excellence…AASHTO advocates transportation-related policies and provides technical services to support states in their efforts to efficiently and safely move people and goods.”

Tags: AASHTO, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Maslanksy Luntz & Partners

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 10th, 2011 at 3:54 pm and is filed under Infra Views, Public Opinion, Roads, Transit . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.