Back in early 2016, we launched the Scenic Route website, a new interactive guide to help transportation professionals collaborate with artists and to introduce creative placemaking to transportation planners, public works agencies, and local elected officials. This guide was an important touchstone, but the evolutions in this field and the notable projects that have happened since its launch have left it in need of an update, which we’re pleased to announce is on the way.
Do you have a project you’d like to see included in the new Scenic Route? Tell us about it here.
The Scenic Route has inspired communities across the county to embed artists into transportation projects through stories like the Green Line in the Twin Cities, where art was integrated into the entire light rail construction process, or transit planning effort in Portland, OR, where artists played a crucial role in community engagement. As part of the Scenic Route’s makeover, we will be updating case studies, adding new resources, and featuring new projects, to reflect the proliferation of artist/transportation agency partnerships and artist-in-residence programs, and to share what has been accomplished over the past few years with the projects we previously featured. Here’s what you can expect:
Updates to flagship case studies included in the first iteration of the website. Oftentimes a creative placemaking project’s impact isn’t realized right away but rather develops in the years following implementation. That’s why we’re following up with some of our favorite projects featured in the guide to see how they have benefited communities in recent years.
A new website organization. The new website will be reorganized to better help you find what you’re looking for.
And most importantly, we want to feature work that you think is important. Have you been a part of a project, or are you familiar with a project that should be featured on the Scenic Route? We’re primarily interested in transportation projects in which artists have played a key role in solving a transportation challenge. Let us know by filling out this form.
We look forward to releasing a new and improved Scenic Route in March. Stay tuned!
Last week, we brought together the artists and agency staff involved in the nation’s first ever artists-in-residence at state departments of transportation to reflect on the inaugural year of the program. Speakers shared their reflections on the residencies, how they coped with the current pandemic, lessons learned, and plans for the future of these novel programs.
WSDOT AiRs Kelly Gregory and Mary Welcome transformed their office space at WSDOT headquarters to be a gathering space, as well as a gallery featuring different aspects of WSDOT’s work. Photo credit: Mary Welcome.
You can find the webinar slides here and the recording below.
The decades-old concept of integrating art within government has increased in popularity in the last couple of years as cities created a number of artist-in-residencies within their departments of planning, parks and recreation, transportation and more, as Ben Stone, director of arts & culture at Transportation for America (T4America), shared last week. But it had never been done at the state level.
It was clear to T4America that having an artist work within a state department of transportation could help the state better accomplish its goals and result in transportation projects that are more supported and beloved. This idea started to crystallize toward the end of 2018 when T4America approached MNDOT and WSDOT about hosting an artist in their respective agencies. T4America helped both agencies fundraise and design their programs, and since the launch in the summer of 2019 has managed the programs and hired the artists.
What made these residencies unique is that they not only were the first programs to occur at state departments of transportation, but at any agency at the state level.
In both the MnDOT and WSDOT AiRs, the intent was to bring a creative approach to advancing the agencies’ goals of improving safety, reducing congestion, promoting economic vitality, supporting multimodal transportation systems, and creating healthier communities.
WSDOT’s artist in residence
Artists Kelly Gregory and Mary Welcome, the artists handpicked for the Washington residency, exceeded the expectations of the WSDOT staff, according to Allison Camden, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Multimodal Development and Delivery at WSDOT. It was “heartening and cathartic for a lot of our staff to see Mary and Kelly capture our challenges so clearly, with ideas on how to address them,” she said. From the beginning Secretary Roger Millar considered it to be an exciting opportunity to bring a fresh perspective to the challenges of a transportation agency.
“People felt heard. They felt understood. And they felt valued. If I could do anything differently, it would have been to set up a two-year program.” – Allison Camden, Deputy Assistant Secretary Multimodal Development and Delivery, WSDOT
Photo credit: Mary Welcome.
Gregory and Welcome’s approach included several months of listening and intentionally “getting lost in the weeds with WSDOT.” If you’re wondering what that actually looked like, they tracked it. They read exactly 69 different reports from different folks in the agency, interviewed 147 different people, traveled over 161 hours, conducted 600 hours of on site work and 170 hours of off-site research, traveled 2978 lane miles on the road and 1830 rail miles, handwrote 190 pages of interview notes, and attended 18 different public legislative hearings.
From their research, they identified a number of themes that they used to shape their numerous final products. Those final products included transforming their office space at WSDOT headquarters into a gallery and gathering space, creating a bumper sticker campaign and DOT-specific conversation cards, as well as writing and printing a newspaper on WSDOT’s maintenance efforts.
Photo credit: Mary WelcomeImage credit: Mart Welcome
Some of these products will be available for purchase from this publisher in early 2021.
“Understanding the people’s dynamic of a place means we can build systems for nurturing, for challenging, for listening, and for imaginative magical thinking.” – Kelly Gregory, Artist-in-residence, WSDOT
MnDOT’s artist in residence
Jessica Oh, the Highway Sponsorship Program Director at MnDOT described how well the AiR program—which MnDOT calls their Community Vitality Fellowship—lines up with MnDOT’s values and strategic plans of acknowledging the importance of place; uplifting community voices and assets; and strengthening relationships with a wide range of stakeholders.
This program has involved deep thinking on the following ideas:
How to build innovative and different partnerships—with artists, arts and culture organizations, and more—to improve transportation outcomes;
How to embrace innovation, flexibility and creativity;
How to be responsive to communities, elevate their voices, and elevate the cultural values within a community in the transportation system;
And how to address the impact of transportation facilities.
Similar to Gregory and Welcome, artist Marcus Young 楊墨 was hand selected by MnDOT and SGA and started his residency by listening to staff and their priorities. Based on that, he identified just how important it would be that his projects provide space for staff to be their whole selves, to be creative, to gather in new ways, and most importantly bring more humanity to their work and transportation as a whole.
A reflection from a MnDOT staffer that came about as part of Young’s work on land acknowledgment at MnDOT. Image courtesy of Marcus Young 楊墨.
This led to Young focusing his time on the creation of three projects:
The Land Acknowledgement Confluence room, a repurposed conference room where staff will be able to gather, be creative, and explore new everyday cultural practices of land acknowledgment. Through his residency Young has had numerous conversations on land acknowledgement, he hopes that this room can help ensure those conversations continue in the future. He remarked that it will not only be a place, but it will be “a placeholder so that we can all practice acknowledging land in better ways. And by acknowledging land in better ways, we acknowledge history. We acknowledge our whole selves in different ways.”
What is a land acknowledgment? “An Indigenous Land or Territorial Acknowledgement is a statement that recognizes the Indigenous peoples who have been dispossessed from the homelands and territories upon which an institution was built and currently occupies and operates in.” Learn more at http://landacknowledgements.org/
A rendering of the future “Land Acknowledgment Confluence Room” which will be created at MnDOT’s headquarters in 2021. Image courtesy of Marcus Young 楊墨.
A Sense of Place Convening that would bring 90 MnDOT leaders together for an intensive day-long event. As part of this convening, Young would use creative exercises and the Open Space Technology method to help participants generate ideas on how MnDOT can elevate placemaking and placekeeping within its work on livability, quality of life, public engagement, equity, economic development, and partnership with communities. This was fully planned, but unfortunately had to be rescheduled due to COVID-19.
A Creative Conversations discussion series tackling topics such as equity, land acknowledgment, sustainability, and imagining what’s possible during this period of great change.
Be it converting unassuming conference rooms or holding space for conversations in unique ways, Young’s overarching message is that the potential of art is hidden everywhere, and you don’t necessarily need to be a professional artist to unearth it:
“If you create a space where we can gather and really work on things together, [you realize] that the potential of art is hidden not only everywhere, but within everyone.” – Marcus Young, Artist-in-residence, MnDOT
What’s next?
Stay tuned for more resources from Smart Growth America and T4America on state DOT AiRs. We’ll be releasing new resources on this topic in early 2021 and providing updates as MnDOT enters year two of its program. You can also sign up for arts and culture-specific updates from us here.
If you are interested in starting up an AiR at your department of transportation or transit agency, we’d love to hear about it! You can reach Ben Stone, our Director of arts & culture at bstone@smartgrowthamerica.org.
This blog is part of a special series on curb management and COVID-19. A joint effort of International Parking & Mobility Institute, Transportation for America, and Institute of Transportation Engineer’s Complete Streets Council, this series strives to document the immediate curbside-related actions and responses to COVID-19, as well as create a knowledge base of strategies that communities can use to manage the curbside during future emergencies.
Adapting curbside management in Santa Monica, CA. Photo from Downtown Santa Monica, Inc.
Flexible curbside management is a small, but key, piece of many cities’ response to COVID-19. Often, these efforts have been supported or made possible with the support and technology of private-sector partners. Transportation for America reached out to its Smart Cities Collaborative sponsors to hear how they’re responding to COVID-19 and working with jurisdictions to adapt curbside management.
Adapting their platforms and launching new tools
To accommodate increased food takeout and deliveries, Coord, a curbside management software company, is offering their platform at no cost for 90 days to cities in its coverage area. Coord also worked with existing city customers who were identifying locations for temporary loading zones and fast-tracked specific feature requests.
Downtown Santa Monica Inc. (DTSM), a business improvement nonprofit in Santa Monica, CA, used Coord’s data collection and analysis to help them quickly stand up a program where essential businesses could temporarily convert metered parking into short-term loading. “[We] were looking for any opportunity to support our district businesses during the COVID-19 crisis,” Benjamin DeWitte, DTSM’s Research and Data Manager, shared with us. “Our prior research into curb usage, driven by COORD data collection and analysis, indicated that a shift from metered parking to short-term loading could positively impact access and efficiency for those who rely on delivery and take out business.”
Populus, whose data platform helps cities manage their curbs, streets, and sidewalks, is working with their existing city customers to provide digital solutions that support “Open Streets” and “Slow Streets”. They’re also inviting cities and agencies to apply to their Open Streets Initiative where they’ll partner with a handful of cities on implementing dynamic street policies and provide them with complimentary access to their Street Manager platform. The deadline to apply is May 15.
Lacuna, a transportation technology company, is launching a dynamic curb reservation system in May that allows cities to remotely allocate sections of curb in real-time to accommodate deliveries of food, freight, and other essential supplies.
Establishing internal teams to work directly with cities
Uber has put together an internal team that’s dedicated to working with cities and stakeholders to ensure safe access points for trips to essential places like hospitals, grocery stores, and pharmacies. They are also reaching out to cities to learn how they can best support city efforts to ensure adequate space for social distancing, offering the use of geofencing and in-app routing changes to support car-free streets.
Strong public and private partnerships are key to emergency response. We hope to continue to see the private sector work alongside municipalities to offer support and transformative tech solutions.
Mae Hanzlik is a program manager for Transportation for America in Washington, D.C.
Last month Transportation for America’s Chairman John Robert Smith traveled to Overland Park, KS to discuss the economic impact of public transportation dollars on local manufacturing jobs with state and local leaders. Local manufacturer Dimensional Innovations (DI) hosted the event at their facility where attendees saw the recently constructed shelters destined for the Downtown Kansas City Streetcar. Transit shelters are one part of the transit supply chain with over 20 percent of DI’s business stemming from public transportation.
Since opening in 2016, the Kansas City Streetcar (KC Streetcar) has been a remarkable success. It’s seen record high ridership levels, logging more than five million passenger trips. It’s also spurred more than $2 billion in residential, retail, and commercial investment. As Tom Gerend, Executive Director of the Kansas City Streetcar Authority states, the streetcar has fueled a economic boom in Kansas City.
But the benefits of transit systems like the KC Streetcar go far beyond the streets and neighborhoods they serve. In the KC Streetcar’s case, it has supported manufacturing jobs at 83 suppliers in 26 different states. Last month, Transportation for America traveled to one such manufacturer—Dimensional Innovations—in Overland Park, KS to highlight the economic impact of public transportation dollars on manufacturing jobs for state and local leaders.
Congresswoman Sharice Davids and staff for Congressman Sam Graves joined leadership from the Greater KC Chamber of Commerce, Kansas City Area Transportation Authority, and Kansas City Streetcar Authority to tour Dimensional Innovations’ manufacturing facility where they build the station shelters for the KC Streetcar.
DI uses its inspired design skills—honed from creating interactive pieces for museums, hospitals, and sports arenas—to make sleek transit shelters that incorporate public art pieces and provide information to customers. Over 20 percent of DI’s business stems from public transportation.
“DI has been incredibly fortunate to be involved in transit-related work across the Kansas City metro for nearly 15 years,” said Tucker Trotter, CEO of Dimensional Innovations. “Transit work has not only created multiple jobs for our organization and allowed us to invest in other areas for growth, but it’s done the same for our local partners and subcontractors. We believe this creates a positive ripple effect within our community, and makes Kansas City an even better place for our employees and their families.”
The transit supply chain is far reaching, touching almost every congressional district. When cities like Kansas City or Chicago invest local and federal dollars in transit projects, they support jobs in the transit supply chain throughout the country. In the case of the KC Streetcar, when Kansas City purchased transit shelters, some of those dollars came to Overland Park and supported jobs locally.
Many public transit manufacturers and suppliers rely on a trained and consistent workforce. Without stable funding from state and federal partners, these jobs might be lost. According to Transportation for America Director Beth Osborne, “that’s a very real threat given that President Trump’s 2020 budget would cut federal transit capital grants by $1 billion.”
The decisions Congress makes regarding transportation funding will impact people who live in communities building transit systems and in the communities that manufacture the seats, engines, wheels, technology, and station shelters that keep those transit systems running. As Gerend says, “Transit investment equals job creation. Not only is the KC Streetcar creating opportunities locally, but it’s helping to create jobs across the country.”
Just before the end of 2018, Transportation for America traveled to Thermo King’s headquarters in Bloomington, MN to get an up close look at the economic impact of public transportation dollars on Minnesota’s manufacturing jobs. Joined by several state and local leaders, Thermo King shared with the group how their high-quality HVAC systems fit into the public transit supply chain.
That welcome rush of cool air when you step onto a bus in the midst of a summer heatwave? You may be experiencing the comfort of a Thermo King cooling system. Back in 1955, Thermo King developed their first air conditioning unit for passenger buses and have been supplying HVAC systems for buses and rail cars ever since. We visited Thermo King’s headquarters in Bloomington, MN to see where they test and design their products.
@ThermoKingCorp is a world leader in HVAC for transit buses. The engineering happens right here in Bloomington, providing great, long-lasting jobs. pic.twitter.com/l5j1Vn5tFQ
We worked with the Minneapolis Regional Chamber to bring together several state leaders including Representative Andrew Carlson, Representative Jon Koznik, and Senator Melissa Wiklund, as well as local leaders like Bloomington City Council Member Tim Busse, and members of Bloomington Chamber of Commerce and East Metro Strong. The discussion focused on how federal, state, and local money invested in public transportation supports and creates jobs in Minnesota and across the country.
Investment in public transit not only supports about 500 jobs at Bloomington’s Thermo King facility, but more than 15,000 manufacturing jobs nationwide. Many of those manufacturers and suppliers rely heavily on a trained and consistent workforce. Without stable funding from state and federal partners, these jobs might be lost. That’s a very real threat given that the Trump administration has repeatedly called for eliminating all federal funding for transit capital improvements. And many state governments are quick to cut transit funding when budgets get tight. The transit supply chain and the effects of those cuts aren’t often well understood.
How does @ThermoKing fit into the transit supply chain? They produce high quality heating and cooling systems for busses and rail cars across the US. pic.twitter.com/NRnZToaMd9
The bottom line is that when we invest in public transit, we are investing in well-paying jobs in communities across America. From assembling busses in Crookston, MN to producing bus seats in Elkhart, IN, or manufacturing rail tracks in Cleveland, OH the public transit supply chain is vast and relies on tens of thousands of hard-working Americans across the country.
We ended with a discussion led by @T4America on the role that transit equipment makers play in creating good jobs, all across the US. The MN-made, MN-cooled bus we saw is for NY MTA. Minnesota has a *lot* of jobs in the transit supply chain. pic.twitter.com/v5SEwas81r
Last week Transportation for America traveled to one of New Flyer of America’s transit bus manufacturing facilities in northern Minnesota to meet with state and local leaders like State Representative Deb Kiel, and get a close look at the economic impact of public transportation dollars on Minnesota manufacturing jobs.
State and local leaders get an inside look at New Flyer of America’s transit bus production line in Crookston, MN. New Flyer proudly flies both the US and Canadian flag as part of NFI Group Inc., a multinational company and North America’s largest bus manufacturer with 31 facilities across the U.S. and Canada.
When Americans think about transit, the first thing that comes to mind might be a bus or train moving people in a coastal, bustling urban area. But the work of manufacturing that bus or railcar—as well as its thousands of component parts— is made possible by the billions in state, local, and federal funds invested in transit each year. And those dollars have effects that ripple out to communities of nearly all sizes across the country.
Last week, we convened state and local leaders like State Representative Deb Kiel, Crookston Mayor Wayne Melbye, staff from U.S. Representative Colin Peterson’s office, and others at New Flyer of America’s transit bus manufacturing facility in Crookston, MN for a discussion about how federal, state, and local money invested in public transportation supports and creates jobs in Minnesota and across the country.
(Left) Jennifer McNeill, New Flyer Vice President of Sales and Marketing talks with Craig Hoiseth, Executive Director at Crookston Housing & Economic Development Authority. (Right) Second from right, Rep. Deb Kiel, and other local leaders hear from New Flyer about the inner workings of the Crookston facility.
Crookston, located in the far northwest corner of the Minnesota, is home to one of New Flyer of America’s four transit bus manufacturing facilities in the U.S. New Flyer of America serves all 25 of the largest transit agencies in North America, and is responsible for about half of the transit buses we see on our roads today.
Each week at the Crookston facility alone, they produce about 20 buses that end up serving communities across the U.S. On the tour we saw technicians in this small, rural community in Minnesota hard at work to build buses destined for cities like Phoenix and San Francisco, painting a compelling picture of just how the supply chain for transit ripples from coast to coast.
New Flyer employs over 1,200 people between its two manufacturing facilities in Minnesota. Like many manufacturers, New Flyer needs a trained and consistent workforce to succeed; both time and money are wasted if you have to retrain a workforce every few years. As Jennifer McNeill, New Flyer Vice President of Sales and Marketing, noted, these are skilled manufacturing jobs, not jobs that can be switched on and off as needed.
(Left) New Flyer employees building out the inside of a bus. (Right) Chairman of Transportation for America, John Robert Smith, speaks to the economic impact of public transportation dollars on manufacturing jobs.
70 percent of New Flyer’s buses are purchased with public dollars, and it’s clear that these Minnesota manufacturing jobs—and others in Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Washington, and Wisconsin—are directly reliant on the federal government continuing to make smart investments in transit.
Unfortunately, ongoing transit funding isn’t entirely certain today. The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has been slow to award grants from the major federal program that helps communities make new investments in high-quality transit service. But the issue goes beyond discretionary grant programs. Congress has had difficulty passing multi-year transportation funding bills and finding dedicated funding sources for transportation. Before passing the FAST Act in December 2015 (which funds federal transportation investments through 2020), Congress passed 35 short-term extensions, which creates the kind of uncertainty that threatens manufacturing jobs that depend on a stable pipeline of orders and projects.
Federal money invested in public transportation each year leverages local and state funding and supports thousands of high paying manufacturing jobs in communities like Crookston, and in nearly every state across the country. Our recent report on the public transportation supply chain found that 91 percent [396 of 435] of congressional districts host at least one manufacturer.
Without predictable and stable federal and state funding, we may see transit agencies cut projects and be pressured to cancel bus and railcar orders from manufacturers across the country like New Flyer.
Federal investments in transit go far beyond building buses and trains for big cities. The transit supply chain supports high quality, valuable, and sustainable jobs in communities like Crookston all across the country. As members of Congress are considering federal appropriations and future long-term transportation funding bills, they should remember the hard working Americans in communities of all sizes that depend on transit funding.
Building Healthy and Prosperous Communities: How Metro Areas are Building More and Better Bicycling and Walking Projects identifies ways that metro planning agencies are planning, funding and building more and better walking and bicycling projects in their communities. To learn more, download the guidebook, view the recording of the webinar below, or read some of the questions answered by the presenters.
On December 11, Transportation for America hosted a webinar discussion highlighting the eight strategies covered in the guidebook:
Design guidance for bicycling and walking projects
Complete Streets policies and programs
Bicycle and walking data collection
Performance measures
Dedicated funding for bicycling and walking projects
Improving walking and bicycling connections to public transportation and essential destinations
Grassroots community engagement
Understanding the public health impacts of transportation behaviors.
In the guidebook each of these eight strategy areas are explained through in-depth, technical case studies of metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) across the country who have done this work, navigated barriers, and succeeded.
Joining the discussion were representatives from three of the MPOs featured in the guidebook. Cortney Geary from the Chattanooga-Hamilton County/North Georgia Transportation Planning Organization shared about their “Community to Region” performance measures framework which has helped prioritize multimodal projects for federal funding. Daniel Kaempff from Metro in Portland, Oregon shared how Metro has improved the design of walking and bicycling projects to encourage active transportation and keep people safe. And Jeff Pollack from the Corpus Christi MPO discussed the development of the region’s customized Bicycle Mobility Network plan and extensive community engagement process.
Want to learn more?
Check out the following resources to learn how to make more progress in building more and better projects to encourage walking and biking:
Learn more about four key policy levers metro areas can use to improve active transportation projects and decrease health disparities with the Measuring What We Value policy report.
When it comes to performance measures more broadly, check out some of the innovative DOTs and MPOs experiencing early successes in measuring the performance of their transportation system and making smart investments in this report.
Stay tuned
In 2018 we’ll take a deep dive into a handful of the case studies featured in this guidebook. Stay tuned for more information about how you can get more technical questions answered by your MPO peers and experts.
Questions and answers
For those of you who really want to dive in deep, we went back and obtained detailed answers from our presenters to some of the questions that we weren’t able to answer during the webinar. You can view them here.
Just before the end of 2018, Transportation for America traveled to Thermo King’s headquarters in Bloomington, MN to get an up close look at the economic impact of public transportation dollars on Minnesota’s manufacturing jobs. Joined by several state and local leaders, Thermo King shared with the group how their high-quality HVAC systems fit into the public transit supply chain.
