Successful transport decision-making - Osmose

Vol 1 - Table of Contents
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Community visits and study tours
Community visits are trips taken by local residents, officials, authorities and consultants to view proposed or actual project areas, or
affected properties. They examine the physical environment of a proposal, and can be used by local people to show engineers, project
personnel, and planners details and conditions they might have missed. Study tours involve visits to other locations (perhaps in
another country) where a project similar in nature to that proposed for an area has already been implemented, so that local residents,
politicians and technical people can learn lessons.
Focus group
A focus group can be used to explore stakeholder perceptions and concerns, obtain detailed feedback, promote interaction and inform
stakeholder opinion. It usually comprises a small group discussion led by a trained facilitator or experienced practitioner. Focus groups
can be fed into the development of policies, strategies and the allocation of resources. They provide an opportunity to contribute to
possible improvements in transport services, by identifying problems, needs, wants and aspirations. Focus groups can either comprise
groups of professionals (e.g. government officials, community groups, transport professionals, transport operators, etc.), or wider
community groups, (e.g. local residents, local businesses etc.) or combinations of the two. Active engagement can be achieved by
encouraging discussion and debate among the group, possibly assisted by a range of stimulus materials (e.g. photographs, maps,
leaflets), or by carrying out a joint exercise (e.g. allocating a given budget to different schemes within an overall strategy).
Workshop
A workshop usually consists of a single event, lasting for between one to four hours, intended to address a particular topic or issue.
It is typically set up in the form of a 'think-tank' or 'brainstorming' session, in which stakeholders discuss the details of a particular issue
and identify possible outcomes. A workshop can be used to help set the framework at the beginning of a project decision-making
process, or it could be used to identify possible solutions at the option generation stage, or as part of the option selection process.
Stakeholders are usually invited based on their professional background or representation of an interest group within the community.
Citizen juries
A range of expert witnesses is called and representative groups of citizens deliberate on the soundness of the arguments presented,
question witnesses, and reach an overall view on the proposed scheme or strategy. Citizens' juries have been used to deliberate on
a range of policy and planning issues, including health, housing, environment and social justice. These methods have been used
extensively in the US, Germany and Austria, and more recently in the UK and Australia.
Technical working party
A technical working party is a regular event where representative groups of stakeholders, often with considerable technical knowledge,
meet to discuss specific issues of concern. These working parties provide an opportunity for creative engagement that could be used
to address a particular issue or help guide the future direction of the project. The main consideration in setting up a technical working
party is to ensure the appropriate representation of participants with specific technical knowledge, from among local government
officials, project team members and other practitioners. They do not usually include local residents, although more technically minded
interest groups (e.g. representative of a cycling campaign group) might be included. Active engagement can be achieved by
encouraging members to work as a team, with each representative having an equal status in presenting their views, and contributing
to the debate. In some circumstances it may be helpful for views to be exchanged and recorded on a non-attributable basis.
When to use these tools
These tools are useful for complex projects over long
periods where a degree of on-going engagement is
desirable. Or where different views exist within the
community and bringing together the different elements in
small groups can identify common objectives, and suggest
possible common ground.
How to avoid or overcome
potential problems
Using stakeholders as a 'sounding board' for the wider
community, can be a valuable tool in the engagement
process, but to avoid barriers it is essential to ensure that
the group is representative, and that it is not used as a
substitute for engaging with the wider community. The
following therefore should be taken into consideration:
To avoid creating barriers by appearing to be exclusive it
should always be explicitly stated in the engagement
strategy how and when smaller groups will be engaged,
and how this fits in with the wider engagement process.
While discussions within the smaller groups should
normally be kept confidential to encourage the free
expression of views, the group should aim to publish
regular communiqués to engender a sense of
transparency.
The weight given to the views expressed by these smaller
groups is usually substantial. It is therefore essential that
in selecting participants, the group represents the widest
possible range of views and as far as possible is impartial.
Engaging with stakeholders is an ideal way of involving
those who might not have the experience or confidence to
participate in larger events. It is therefore important to
ensure that barriers do not occur within the group with a
small number of vocal individuals dominating the debate.
How to deal with 'difficult' group members needs to be
established in advance.
Because the smaller groups will usually be independent it
is therefore often difficult to anticipate the outcome of the
engagement process, and the results might be hostile or
embarrassing for the project. It is therefore important for
the engagement strategy to address in advance the
possibility of negative results from these groups.
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