2024 Competition Theme: Planning & Projects, Policy and Operations

Why don’t they understand? Transportation professionals often find it challenging to communicate critical transportation topics to a non-technical audience. Since 2007, TRB’s annual competition on Communicating Concepts with the Public has been highlighting best practices in public involvement.  The 2024 competition sought entries in three categories: Planning & Projects, Policy, and Operations.

Three entries were selected for the competition showcase for their exemplary communications efforts, as well as two honorable mentions. The communications tools and techniques they used epitomize the spirit of communicating complex information in an uncomplicated manner. View the handout highlighting all the winners here. 

Competition Runner Up

Bloomington Safe Streets for All - "Safety Week" Engagement and Communications Blitz

To energize residents around the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) work happening in Bloomington, Indiana, the City of Bloomington hosted Safety Week in April 2024. Safety Week was an all-out engagement

and communication blitz to get feedback on, have discussions about, and educate residents on what the City is and can be doing to make their streets safer for everybody. This one-week event engaged more than

2,000 residents, with especially strong involvement from college students, People of Color, renters, and youth — demographics that are traditionally underrepresented in public participation work.

Competition Runner Up

SAFERoad Solutions Marketing Toolkit

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet identified a need for a consistent and comprehensive toolkit of marketing materials to better communicate new and innovative transportation solutions to the public. All assets would need visually appealing graphics and

understandable language to educate the public and stakeholders about highway design solutions that are becoming more common in Kentucky but may be unfamiliar to drivers. Working with a consultant and a cross-functional team, we developed a new webpage,

PowerPoints, fact sheets, videos and other assets to use on social media, at public meetings and to share with media. We branded our assets as SAFERoad Solutions.