Students assessed current infrastructure gaps, community beliefs and needs, and the politics of redesigning streets to accommodate multimodal transportation in the region. By impacting the physical, cultural, and systemic environments, students believe LTD could further connect their service to bike infrastructure. For example, mapping studies identified gaps in bikeshare service while community engagement recorded community members’ feelings and needs surrounding bikeshare and infrastructure. Students also used policy studies alongside street redesigns to identify areas with the greatest street improvement needs, generating proposals to encourage future infrastructure improvements. In addition, one group looked at the existing transit system through an equity and access lens and advocated for prioritizing marginalized neighborhoods in transportation planning and addressing network barriers for people with disabilities.

While LTD is a government entity funded by tax payers and state and federal resources, many community members are underutilizing or unaware of LTD transportation services. Our organization is searching for ways to engage demographics underutilizing LTD’s services and involve the Lane County community in the development process for Connect 2045.

Groups conducted extensive background research and gained a deeper understanding of LTD’s long term goals by meeting with LTD staff several times throughout the term. Through this process, students identified two major barriers for community members in accessing services: lack of awareness surrounding LTD services and negative stigma regarding safety and sanitation in public transportation.

Students proposed solutions that prioritized a community centered approach, leveraging community partnerships to dismantle negative stigmas that threaten the longevity of LTD. The two primary solutions were to gamify LTD services and implement educational outreach programming focused on reaching older adults, sorority members, University of Oregon (UO) first-year students, Lane Community College (LCC) and Bushnell University students, and high school students in Lane County. Each group created specific tactics and implementation strategies to implement prior to the launch and throughout development of LTD Connect 2045. By maintaining regular pathways for community engagement early on in this process, students sought to provide LTD with adaptable solutions that could be adjusted as operational changes are implemented. As these tactics develop, students aimed to create long-term relationships with community  members and sustained support for public transportation.