Example of Outreach Efforts

Outreach efforts continue throughout the life of the project. The following summary lists the outreach activities the Connected Corridors team undertook during a small slice of the project's life span. It is included here as an example of the work carried out to support the I-210 Pilot.

Meetings and activities

  • Held initial meetings with Caltrans Headquarters and leadership at Caltrans D7 for project initiation and mutual understanding, and to get buy-in from the local Caltrans district
  • Expanded outreach with primary partners: the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Agency (“LA Metro”) and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works (“LACDPW”)
  • Participated in two meetings with each of the corridor cities (Pasadena, Arcadia, Monrovia, Duarte) – one meeting to introduce the project to the staff and one technical meeting to review the existing data, communications equipment, signal controllers and software, etc.
  • Prepared a Connected Corridors Outreach and Communications Work Plan
  • Assisted with drafting the “ICM Deployment Planning Grant” submitted to the Federal Highway Administration
  • Held a User Needs Workshop with the cities, LACDPW, Metro, Caltrans D7, and Headquarters to discuss and document stakeholder needs which will be a component of the Concept of Operations document
  • Met with the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments (the largest and most diverse sub-regional council of governments in Los Angeles County) staff, Traffic Forum, and Transportation Committee
  • Met with the Metropolitan Planning Organization (the Southern California Association of Governments) – the largest MPO in the nation – who are very interested in the project and future collaboration
  • Met with the California Highway Patrol and the LA County Coroner’s office regarding coordinated incident response; interest in attending a First Responder’s User Needs Workshop with local police and fire, the Sheriff’s Department, etc.
  • Made presentations to the Pasadena, Arcadia, Monrovia, and Duarte City Councils
  • Held meetings with transit providers: Foothill Transit, Metro Bus, and Metro Rail; held a separate Transit User Needs Workshop
  • Have ongoing bi-monthly Connected Corridors Project Management team meetings at D7 in Los Angeles and weekly Connected Corridors conference calls
  • Prepared and executed Project Charter with 11 stakeholder agencies; amendment signed in 2017 adding two additional stakeholders

 Outreach materials

  • Prepare and distribute regular Connected Newsletters
  • Prepared and distributed Connected Corridors Fact Sheets
  • Wrote the Connected Corridors Summary for the UC Berkeley/PATH Biennial Report
  • Prepared the Connected Corridors Poster for the 2014 Transportation Research Board mid-year meeting in Irvine, CA
  • Initiated the Connected Corridors website
  • Posted the Connected Corridors Digest on an ongoing basis – a compendium of links to articles, research papers, conferences, newsletters, etc. specifically related to ICM
  • Prepared speaking points regarding the Connected Corridors/I-210 pilot for various speakers

 Conference presentations

  • ITS California Southern California Lunch Meetings – Connected Corridors was presented at two ITS California lunch meetings in Southern California, once by Greg Merritt and once by Sam Esquenazi.
  • 2014 TRB Mid-Year Meeting in Irvine – Connected Corridors was well-represented at the 2014 TRB Mid-Year meeting. Caltrans Director Dougherty prominently discussed Connected Corridors during his keynote address and the project had a poster during the “poster session” where the project components and stakeholders were highlighted. Several other posters related to Connected Corridors were also at the poster session.
  • ITS California Annual Meetings – Connected Corridors staff members are regular participants at ITS CA meetings. Our first presentation was in 2014. The topics and participants change annually depending on the meetings theme.
  • Participation in Federal DSS Workshop in San Diego – Connected Corridors team members from Caltrans D7, Caltrans HQ, UC Berkeley, and LA Metro participated in a two-day DSS workshop in San Diego in August 2014.
  • Analysis, Modeling, and Simulation Workshop at D7 - The Connected Corridors staff from UC Berkeley are organizing and participating in the AMS Workshop at CT D7 on August 13th.
  • TRB (Transportation Research Board) Presentations - PATH staff members and Caltrans representives also participate regularly in TRB's annual conference held each January. Although specific sessions on CC are not as frequent, PATH or ITS hosts a table with information on Connected Corridors, in addition to participating in the conference as attendees.

Future activities

  • Outreach with other business, professional, and/or community organizations
  • Initiate speaker’s bureau, quarterly webinars, and social media (Facebook and/or Twitter)
  • Plan and implement a videoconference series in lieu of initial press release
  • Develop a Connected Corridors brochure
  • Plan and implement an annual Connected Corridors/ICM Conference