Phase III - Objectives

An important perspective that emerged early in the
planning for the Toolkit was that the Toolkit needed to be more than
simply an inventory of issues, impact measures, and analysis tools
for planners. For transportation or planning agencies, too often the
issue or the analysis is defined by the capabilities of available
tools, data and expertise, by too-literal interpretation of planning
requirements, or by anticipated political support/ backlash for the
answer. Hence, transportation and planning agencies must not only
have better information on the tools and analytic approaches which
are available to them (such as already exist in such sources as NCHRP
Report 532 and NCHRP Project 8-36 (11)), but must be given the motivation
to seek and use those tools in place of existing tools or analyses
that may be more familiar, but which may be less effective in measuring
critical impacts. We believe that an informed and proactive community
may be the critical element in bringing this motivation to the transportation
planning process. The disadvantaged community and its advocates must
be better equipped to challenge this process in terms of the information
it makes available, the types of questions which are asked, and how
to negotiate for a reasonable solution.

The intent is to involve members of the community directly throughout
the entire process of defining the problem, working to understand
its causes and impacts, quantifying those impacts, and exploring the
range of potential solutions. We are adopting this interactive approach
for several reasons:

· To learn how to best introduce the public to the process
of problem solving, in order that they can most effectively participate
in and impact the planning and decision-making process.

· To use real-time public input throughout the process to
ensure that the technical team properly understands the community’s
sensitivities to the problem, and the types of information which are
most useful.

· To foster an interaction between the public and the participating
transportation/planning agencies to build a more meaningful dialogue
on why issues require particular impact measures or analyses.