While this plan will use lots of data, your stories, experiences, and ideas will truly shape the future of transit in Allegheny County.
Here’s how to share your ideas:
The way we’ll work together to create this plan is pretty simple. We have some big questions we’d like you to think about when you’re participating in the planning process. These questions form the six themes for public engagement throughout the process, which will last just over a year. Each of these themes builds upon what we’ve discussed and learned from the previous one.
The NEXTransit public engagement themes:
1: Confirming and Focusing on the Benefits and Barriers to Transit.
Our first public engagement theme is all about hearing your stories about public transit. What are the benefits of using transit and having it in your neighborhood? What barriers make it difficult for you to get where you need to go?
These basic questions will help us to understand your challenges and prepare for the next phase of the plan where we'll start talking about where you want (and need) to go.
2: Where Do You Want To Go?
The second theme is all about documenting destinations. We'll work with you to identify gaps in connectivity, accessibility, ridership experience, and efficiency in the transit network.
Some trips made by transit today could be better, and some might not even be possible! We’ll also talk about ways the network could allow you to combine modes (walking, bicycling, driving) in a better way to make your life easier and more predictable.
3: How Can Transit Get You There?
Once we have a better idea of the gaps that exist in the network, we’ll kick off our third theme that will help us to start identifying projects that can help to fix them.
Some places could be better connected with more frequent service, better sidewalks and stops, new lines, etc. We won’t know what the right mix of projects is until we get to this stage, but once we do, we will be thinking about not only the next 25 years’ worth of projects, but what project could come NEXT to make your journey better.
4: What Investments are Most Important?
A project list is kind of like a wish list—the fourth theme will help us to narrow down what projects are most important based on a number of factors.
The discussions we’ll have during this phase will help you become more familiar with costs, constraints, and funding sources for the various kinds of projects that are possible within/between the corridors you’ve helped us to identify. Comments made in previous themes will be used to make suggestions that will be tested with a variety of performance metrics.
5: Did We Get It Right?
In this fifth and final theme, you will have a chance to review the recommendations presented in the NEXTransit plan. The purpose of this is to not only check the words and numbers for correctness, but to ensure that you and your community see yourselves in the plan.
The plan’s priorities should reflect your goals and needs for a high-quality, equitable, resilient, and all-around great transit network. As a resident of the Pittsburgh area, you should be proud of your transit system and what it can be.
Talk transit to us.
Obviously, our team loves talking about transit. We hope you will, too! There are lots of ways to weigh in on your vision for what’s NEXT for transit in our region. Learn a bit more about them here and click the button below when you’re ready to get on board!
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation, our social distancing-friendly methods of engagement will be more important than ever. We have some lower-tech options available to make sure people of all ages and abilities can participate!
Offline:
In-person surveys/feedback*
Community meetings*
Meetings-in-a-box (kits with activities and instructions for community groups)*
Phone—seriously! It’s easy, and no internet is required! Pass this info along to anyone you know who isn’t online. To leave a general message, call toll-free to (855) 925-2801 and enter project code 8711 when prompted
Online:
Website (you are here!)
Social media—use the links in the header/footer to connect
SMS/Text surveys and meeting notices
Email (sign up below to get future notifications!)
Online meetings with interactive ways of giving us feedback in real time (these will integrate with in-person community meetings* in the future)
*Once public health authorities say it’s safe do so.
Let’s get social!
Follow us on social media to ensure you stay up to date on project progress, events, and ways you can stay involved.
Click the social media icons at the top or bottom of any page to connect to our social media pages!
