Browsing by Author "Steinhoff, Forrest"

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    Effective Community Engagement Strategies For Implementing Transit Advantages
    (2020-04-30) Tomhave, Benjamin; Molinari, Eric; Steinhoff, Forrest; Gale, Leslie
    Over the past decades there has been a steady shift in expectations in the United States surrounding the community’s role in public transportation projects of all types. Several decades ago, decisions about public transit projects were made exclusively by technical planners. Public input into these decisions was not considered necessary, much less desirable. Today, the community expects to play a much more central role in the decision-making surrounding these projects than in the past. The most successful public transit agencies have come to rely on community participation to ensure that their projects make a positive contribution to the public good. Metro Transit has seen this steady shift and has made great strides in e!ectively incorporating public participation into many of its large-scale projects like Bus Rail Transit (BRT) and Light Rail Transit (LRT). When it comes to smaller scale transit advantage projects, like the creation of bus lanes and bus stop consolidation, Metro Transit believes that there is room for improvement. The problem is that public engagement on these transit advantage projects comes mainly from individuals who are in opposition to the project. Opposition tends to come from individuals who live or work close to where a project is being implemented and feel they are negatively impacted. Receiving this negative feedback is important, but it is equally important to receive feedback from stakeholders that may have a di!erent opinion about the project, but may not be as highly motivated to provide this feedback.
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    A Gathering Within: An Attraction Beyond - The COR Development Engagement Plan
    (Resilient Communities Project (RCP), University of Minnesota, 2017) Cho, Joanne; Singer-Berk, Lila; Howard, Kurt; Powers, Denetrick; Steinhoff, Forrest; Mohamed, Kowsar
    This project was completed as part of the 2017-2018 Resilient Communities Project (rcp.umn.edu) partnership with the City of Ramsey. The COR, the city’s mixed-use, transit-oriented development along the Northstar Commuter Rail Corridor, was intended as a vibrant destination in the community, with a variety of uses of varying intensities within walking distance of each other. With less than half of The COR currently developed, Ramsey staff will soon be updating The COR development plan, and wanted assistance identifying appropriate strategies for including the public in the plan update processS. tudents in Dr. Dan Milz’s Planning and Participation Processes class reviewed the literature on public engagement around a planned development, researched case studies of engagement efforts around similar developments in other communities, and recommended key strategies for Ramsey to consider for engaging residents around development of The COR. The students’ final report and poster are available.
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    Planning for Connected & Autonomous Vehicles (CAV)
    (Resilient Communities Project (RCP), University of Minnesota, 2019) Chao, Lynda; McNiel, Dan; Mohler, Elliot; Hase-Raney, Isaac; Corder, Ian; Leys, Kathryn; Molinari, Eric; Schneider, Ben; Del Rosario, Ari; Houser, Emily; Simmons, Koehl; Steinhoff, Forrest; Engstrom, Shannon; Haney, Patrick; Nowak, Jacqueline; Want, Yuyan
    These projects were completed as part of a year-long partnership between Scott County and the University of Minnesota’s Resilient Communities Project (http://www.rcp.umn.edu). The goal of the project was to research and plan for how several key sites in the county could be adapted and re-envisioned to accommodate connected and autonomous vehicles. Students in Dr. Fernando Burga’s Land Use Planning class worked with Scott County Traffic Engineer Mark Callahan to research the role of connected and autonomous vehicles in: impacting pedestrian safety, creating suburban and rural transportation hubs, master planning for an urban village, and restructuring freight and ports. Each team of students created a series of research posters that use visuals to introduce the problem, explore precedent and case studies, examine policy solutions, and provide design renderings and recommendations. Research posters from each site are available.