8 Things I Learned at Remix Conference
Last weekend, Remix celebrated its third annual user conference — bringing together agencies from across the world (from Sydney to Alabama to Reykjavik) to focus on the art of telling stories and moving people.
I’ve been in transit for five years now, and every conference I’ve gone to has been about celebrating the success of big projects — the wins that make headlines. But what about the little stories that are never told? Like the time you convinced a business to partner with you on a new route? Or when you were able to convince internal stakeholders that a grid network could connect people more efficiently?
Over the course of two days, we heard from practitioners, executives, and even transit advocates. Here’s what stood out to me:
1. Be approachable, especially if you’re in a leadership position.
Kelvin Miller, of the M in Montgomery, AL, wholeheartedly believes the higher up you are in the agency, the more you need to be able to have honest conversations with internal and external stakeholders. This advice transcends projects and fields — we love for our board members to experience riding the system; we love for our young professionals to contribute their innovative ideas to the conversation; and we’re stronger off as teams if we encourage open and honest lines of communication.
2. Technology gives everyone the same information in real time.
Too often public hearings, workshops, and meetings are poorly attended, and not for a lack of notice. Changes to transit systems impact many people for whom showing up to a 6pm meeting at the library is difficult or impossible. By using technology available to us now, we’re able to disseminate information widely, ensuring that more community members have a way to receive information and engage with transit agencies, and on their own time. But remember, technology enhances your public engagement strategy; it isn’t your entire public engagement strategy.
3. Partner with businesses and enable them to rely on transit.
Working with private employers can benefit an agency, especially when you’re coming to the table with tradeoffs. The cost difference between adding a stop on a route versus deviating your route is something your partners need to know. How can transit agencies enable businesses to be better last-mile providers? By bringing them into the transit planning conversation early and often.
4. Focus on increasing accessibility, not ridership.
I’ve written on this before. Accessibility helps us to measure our systems impact in a way that measures quality of service. We rip apart highway advocates for not understanding induced demand, but we too need to apply the same theories to transit. If we provide more transit (in logical areas), our service quality and reliability can improve and serve those who need it most. It also tells a better story that you’ve increased the opportunity for someone to have options as opposed to counting the number of people and calling it a day.
5. Invest in transit where it’s likely to succeed — in affordable neighborhoods.
Instead of spending all our efforts on attracting the “choice” riders, we can focus on ensuring frequent transit is near affordable housing. Beyond that, any real estate influence a transit agency has needs to ensure affordable housing is a requirement for all TOD projects. If we fill our stations with parking and not people, how can we expect our system metrics to improve? Community members that rely on transit are going to continue to ride transit, but those expectations shouldn’t mean we reduce the quality of service or what’s within the sphere of our influence near that service.
6. Ensure your core values and metrics are written into contracts with private partners.
Besides splashy branding, public-private partnerships (especially with TNCs) should serve an agency’s needs. Does the project benefit you? Does the project benefit your partner? What are the risks? We heard from our agencies present that cost savings, ridership increases, perception, physical accessibility, unbanked communities, and Title VI are all factors they consider when approaching any partnerships.
7. Operations needs a makeover.
How do you make operations sexier? Capital infrastructure receives the majority of funding, but we need to be able to support and maintain the service that is enabled by that investment. Belinda Woodiel-Brill from KAT in Knoxville, TN says we need to help people understand the costs of operating transit in a clearer way — if 20% of average household income is toward transportation, you are working 1 day per week to pay for your car. Alternatively, you can spend a fraction of that riding transit! The more of us that ride transit, the cheaper it is for every household.
8. Make it their idea.
If our projects win over the hearts and minds of the community, the conversation shifts from “your project” to “our project.” In Atlanta, the Beltline became a community-driven movement and the once-crazy idea was actually implemented. With all projects, we need to solicit ideas and encourage feedback from the community early on in order to drive ownership from community members throughout the process. The goal is that all projects should be backed and owned by the community.
