The Future of Virtual Engagement

The future of Virtual Engagement: Lessons from the Pandemic and Beyond

K.K.L Bhanuja Damarla and Monica Villalobos

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us about the need to continuously adapt to new social and environmental realities resulting from changes in regulatory policies. This process of immediate and reactionary responsiveness has led to many innovative developments, especially in the realm of planning and public engagement. New approaches, such as virtual walking tours can be used to create greater reach by increasing accessibility and participation of stakeholders and the public. The virtual space provides new opportunities to effectively manage walking tours, casting a wider net for online participation, offering flexible times for participation, and accommodating greater numbers and types of engagement. Virtual walking tours have proved to be a highly-effective planning tool during the pandemic. Virtual engagement has also proven an effective complement to traditional in-person engagement arguably with a promise to stay.

Walking tours have been an effective engagement tool on many planning projects where site-specific input is needed at the local level and where neighborhood context is key. Walking tours are especially critical for decision-making and project prioritization, often used for planning related to First-Last Mile (FLM) and transit planning projects. Traditional (in-person) walking tours involve project teams physically walking through sites and organizing charrettes, surveys, or facilitated question and answer sessions with stakeholders to receive community feedback. In contrast, virtual tours allow for self-guided participation on an online platform. They are mostly limited by internet access. They present opportunities to easily facilitate information sharing and input requiring less in-person labor and management while shielding the process from adverse weather events.

In the spring of 2020, Los Angeles County like much of the country was under strict lockdown orders due to COVID-19, rendering in-person walking tours infeasible. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Agency (Metro) had plans to conduct in-person walking tours for areas along with the proposed C (Green) Line Extension Project (Project), which will extend light rail to Torrance. The Project, currently in the environmental phase, had hoped to engage residents and stakeholders by walking the neighborhoods that abut the proposed alignments and soliciting input. Given that COVID-19 safety measures were in play for the foreseeable future, Metro had to come up with an alternative solution to receive feedback during the project timeline without the need to physically gather.

Metro and the consultant1 team decided to organize a series of virtual neighborhood walks with an emphasis on using an interactive platform that was accessible, educational, and easy to gather input. The team decided to curate the walks using ArcGIS StoryMaps (an Esri software program) combining traditional online content with narrated video and survey questions to allow visitors to virtually explore segments of the light rail alternatives at the local level. The idea of online engagement is not new, yet technology innovations, emerging platforms, and the intentional creation of more interactive formats are changing how we engage with the public on planning projects.

The virtual neighborhood walks (Figure 1) for the C Line Extension project utilized an interactive platform and media to increase participation. The platform allows visitors to follow a guided map and view key aspects of the neighborhoods along with the proposed alternatives. These maps virtually explore the two alternative alignment options with narrated prerecorded videos at key stops along the moving walking route. At the end of each walk, questionnaires were available to provide feedback on key design elements, along with an option for open comments.

Figure 1: Screenshots of a virtual neighborhood walk. Source: Metro, 2022. Available online https:// storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/f06979716e0542f093 b55fff8c15082e

The platform was designed to easily gather feedback on what is important to the community. In traditional walking tours, teams usually assign a scribe who takes notes to capture feedback and communication during the tour. Hence there exists an opportunity for communication gaps and interpretation of feedback. Using virtual platforms helps reduce these drawbacks as the communication originates directly from the stakeholder within the survey window. The feedback and comments are safely stored by the system and the data is easily retrievable and sortable.

Metro is not alone in the shift towards increasing online participation and engagement. Other public agencies like the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) and the City of Lafayette, California have used similar online platforms to receive localized input (Figure 2). SANDAG used the Socialpinpoint virtual platform to receive public input on the North County Comprehensive Multimodal Corridor Plan (CMCP) (Sandag, n.d.). The Socialpinpoint platform combines base maps with geo-specific comments using icons for planning topic areas and survey questions.

The City of Lafayette used a similar walking tour concept for their Housing element update. They incorporated a YouTube video embedded on the site along with a digital map of the route to share information with the public (Robles, 2021). In addition to the examples stated above, there is a body of research on virtual tools and public participation in the planning field (Iroz-Elardo et al., 2021). As the research suggests, aside from online platform tools such as Geographic Information System (GIS), renderings and photo-simulation have been effective in promoting greater stakeholder participation in planning and design processes (Al-Kodmany, 1999).

Figure 2: Screenshot of the Socialpinpoint virtual platform. Source: North County Comprehensive Multimodal Corridor Plan (CMCP SANDAG, 2022). Available online https://sandag.mysocialpinpoint. com/northcounty

For the C Line Extension Project, using the virtual tour platform proved highly engaging, resulting in a large number of participants (Figure 3). Metro tracked the participation over six weeks and found that more than 1,600 people visited the site. With 2,500 views, some people visited the site more than once. A total of 232 surveys were submitted. The numbers are impressive and outweigh the levels of engagement typically allowed from traditional in-person events. The responders included diverse groups who do not or cannot usually participate in traditional walking tours.

While the response to the virtual neighborhood walks was a good turn-out, Metro plans on conducting additional in-person walking tours later this year. The hope is that while the virtual walks provided a key avenue for engagement during the pandemic, when possible in-person activities help to further relationship building with residents in the area. The virtual walking tours were an effective way of gathering input and foreseeably could continue to be used as a complementary public engagement tool (Figure 4). Despite all the encouraging signs, virtual tours have drawbacks that need to be addressed to improve their use and widespread adaptability.

As noted earlier, internet access can be an obstacle for those who have limited access, especially for low-income households. Additionally, improvements to allow for visually impaired participants should be explored. In addition, virtual tours provide fewer opportunities for relationship building - an important component of consensus building and trust between agency representatives and the public.

Figure 3: Screenshot of the C Line Extension Project virtual tour. Source: Los Angeles Metro, 2022

Metro is the first of many agencies trying new platforms to keep participants engaged during a pandemic and health crisis. Metro synthesized feedback from the survey and posted infographics on the same website to be easily viewable to the public. The virtual neighborhood walks have proven to be a valuable step towards continued public engagement and hopefully, a valuable complement to other in-person activities as in-person social gatherings commence.

Using these kinds of platforms places public feedback as the topmost priority, with an emphasis on broader accessibility and enhanced engagement. The combination of both virtual and in-person walking tours might offer even greater public participation and a valuable way to sort and quantify input. Innovations such as these are a starting point for planners and designers to consider as they plan for meaningful public participation during the pandemic and beyond.

Figure 4: Examples of the types of information collected as part of the Condon Avenue Walk questionnaire. Source: Los Angeles Metro, 2022

About the Authors

Bhanuja is a trained architect and urban designer experienced in working with private and public sector clients. She brings a fresh design-oriented perspective to planning projects and studies. She is motivated by a desire to transform space into a healthy, equitable, and sustainable urban environment. Bhanuja has worked as an architect and project planner developing master plans, hospitality projects, largescale commercial projects, streetscape design, first/last mile plans, transit-oriented communities, and transportation planning studies.

Monica (she/her) brings over 15 years of experience in the planning and transportation field. Her passion and commitment to the field are evidenced by her extensive experience and leadership roles. As Principal of VICUS (a Los Angeles-based company), Monica leads an organization dedicated to client service, delivery of high-quality products, and innovative solutions. She brings a unique cross-disciplinary perspective having worked in the fields of transportation planning and policy, NEPA/CEQA, Transit-Oriented Communities (TOC), land use, active transportation, first/last mile, and awardwinning community engagement strategies.

Bhanuja and Monica are part of the consultant team (TOC and UD-TOC coordination leads) for the C Line extension to Torrance project for the Los Angeles Metro.

REFERENCES

Al-Kodmany, K. (1999). Using visualization techniques for enhancing public participation in planning and design: Process, implementation, and evaluation. Landscape and Urban Planning, 45(1), 37–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0169-2046(99)00024-9

Iroz-Elardo, N., Erickson, H., Howell, A., Olson, M., & Currans, K. (2021). Community Engagement in a Pandemic. University of Arizona.

Robles, R. (2021, June 30). Self-guided and virtual walking tour. City of Lafayette General Plan Update. Retrieved January 24, 2022, from https://www.planlafayette.org/ updates/he-walking-tour

SANDAG. (n.d.). North County CMCP Socialpinpoint. Social Pinpoint | North County CMCP. Retrieved January 24, 2022, from https://sandag.mysocialpinpoint.com/northcounty

Cover photo: Gold Line train on East 1st Street, July 2017 (Wikipedia)