In order to have effective public involvement, governments need a road map for the decision-making process. Yet, citizens from small and medium sized cities frequently do not have the resources to use sophisticated technology for public involvement programs. With limited budgets, small cities and towns frequently are not able to allocate substantial resources to public involvement. Having the funds for constructing transportation infrastructure is the priority of the local government. At the same time, if the public is not involved in the decision-making, the government may run into major community resistance after investing time and money into pursuing its preferred alternative. This paper presents a variety of low cost techniques. It reviews how to: identify and recruit participants for public involvement, promote local leadership and ownership of the process, design decision-making processes that work, keep diverse groups focused on accomplishing results, and solicit input and participation without creating unrealistic expectations.
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