Crowdsourcing Public Participation in Transit Planning: Preliminary Results from Next Stop Design Case
Daren C. Brabham, Thomas W. Sanchez, Keith Bartholomew · 2010
We recognize that the collective intelligence of communities is largely untapped by traditional public participation (P2) methods, which may result in less-than-ideal transit plans that neglect the needs of diverse constituencies. Mediated approaches may ameliorate contextual factors which inhibit participation in traditional methods, and, specifically, Web-based participatory activities would cast a wider net in the community, harnessing more and more diverse input. This paper discusses a P2 model utilizing “crowdsourcing, ” which is a Web-based, distributed problem solving model already in use by a number of online businesses, a model which promises to be such an alternative P2 method for public transit planning. This paper draws from a Federal Transit Administration (FTA) pilot project focused on the application of crowdsourcing to bus stop design at the neighborhood scale. We introduce the concept of crowdsourcing and then discuss the components of transit stop design. This is followed by preliminary results from Next Stop Design, our first case study in transit stop design.