Strong Towns: The Highest Form of Public Engagement Isn’t a Meeting (2026-04-03, Edward Erfurt)

I have become increasingly dissatisfied with attending and speaking at public meetings on transportation projects. Most of the time, what the public says make only minor difference in the project. No matter what the design stage, planners and engineers already have a pretty clear picture of what they want to build. Strong opposition may stop a project, but it rarely improves a project. This blog has had a larger impact than my meeting participation, and though my voice is important, it is only one voice and I can’t claim that it represents what the public wants. I have the expertise to speak to transportation planners and engineers in their own terminology, but very few people have that. Nor should need to have it.

A recent article on the Strong Towns website expresses what I have struggled to express. Please read it, and ponder it!

The upshot is that creating a temporary change to the transportation network, the agency can then get public feedback on their experience of using the project, not on some theoretical change that is hard to grasp. Temporary changes might include:

• curb extensions with paint and vertical delineators
• speed display signs (preliminary to reducing speed limits, narrowing lanes, creating ‘friction’)
• creating temporary medians with paint and vertical delineators
• closing driveways
• closing travel lanes when there are excessive travel lanes, with cones or vertical delineators
• temporary separated bikeways with paint and vertical delineators

See Strong SacTown Quick Build Street Safety, category: Street Design Standards, and Streets for People Action Transportation Plan for additional ideas.