Interested in building broad community awareness and support, while effectively managing potential opposition? Looking to strategically engage stakeholders and encourage them to inform a project’s scope and design?

Bluegreen teams with the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority (RFTA) and HNTB to create and implement a public engagement program that realizes RFTA’s commitment to a community-informed Bus Rapid Transit project.  When operational in 2013, the service will extend from Glenwood Springs to Aspen, and will combine the flexibility and cost savings of buses with the efficiency, speed, reliability and amenities of a rail system.  The planned service affects a vast cross-section of the community and reaching this wide variety of people, including existing and potential riders, is critical to the service's success.

The approach to reaching this audience includes facilitating a process that communicates information clearly, accurately documents feedback, demonstrates the feedback's result in shaping the project, and, ultimately, cultivates relationships and trust in the process and the Bus Rapid Transit service. Participation is made possible using multiple tools to overcome the public’s general inclination to not get involved. Workshops, charrettes, one-on-one and small group meetings, kids activities, and social and traditional media allow people the opportunity to learn about the planned service and to provide feedback in meaningful ways that best suit their needs and busy schedules.