Framing Livability: A Strategic Communications Approach to Improving Public Transportation in Oregon

Oregon is recognized as a national leader in improving transportation options and limiting urban sprawl. In the 42 years since Senate Bill 100 launched Oregon's land use planning program, these efforts have gone by different names: "reducing reliance on the automobile," "reducing vehicles miles traveled," "reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation," "compact, mixed-use, transit-oriented development," "smart growth," "sustainability," and "livability," to name a few. Despite these varying approaches to simply communicating the benefits of public transportation, there remain vast misperceptions of these efforts. The project team must better understand public perceptions in order to shift attitudes toward public transportation and, ultimately, change public behavior. The success of public transportation depends, the project team believes, upon public understanding of, and support for, livability. Recently in response to state requirements to significantly reduce GHG emissions from light-duty vehicles, Portland Metro surveyed public opinions and concluded that the best way to sell efforts to combat climate change was to talk not about climate change but rather about livability: about the benefits to people's pocketbooks, choices, health, and community. While this shift in approach has been marginally applied in Portland, a large gap In communicating and connecting with residents’ concerns persists. The heart of this effort will be through a partnership with the City of Portland to do extensive pilot research and message testing in conjunction with the Powell-Division Transit and Development Project in Portland. This corridor consists largely of wide streets and strip malls – in other words, an area that is not particularly pedestrian or bike friendly, and one very much like many other metro areas around the state and the country. Taking a focused approach to strategic communications should yield meaningful insights and promising outcomes for the Powell-Division project, and the lessons learned can be carried forward as a model for livability focused transportation projects in other metropolitan areas throughout the country.

• Record URL:
  http://nitc.trec.pdx.edu/research/project/873/Framing_Livability:_A_Strategic_Communications_Approach_to_Improving_Public_Transportation_in_Oregon

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $ 180,602
• Contract Numbers:

  NITC 873

• Sponsor Organizations:

  University of Oregon

  1275 University of Oregon
  Eugene, Oregon  United States  97403-1275

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  TREC at Portland State University

  1900 SW Fourth Ave, Suite 175
  P.O. Box 751
  Portland, Oregon  United States  97201
• Project Managers:

  Hagedorn, Hau

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Oregon

  1275 University of Oregon
  Eugene, Oregon  United States  97403-1275
• Principal Investigators:

  Larco, Nico

  Matthews, Kelli

  Morrison, Deborah

• Start Date: 20150901
• Expected Completion Date: 20170630
• Actual Completion Date: 20180903
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Behavior; Climate change; Greenhouse gases; Land use planning; Mixed use development; Modal shift; Sustainable development; Transit oriented development; Urban sprawl
• Subject Areas: Environment; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01607749
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: National Institute for Transportation and Communities
• Contract Numbers: NITC 873
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Aug 18 2016 11:34AM