- November 6, 2024
- Awards
Metro’s Better Bus Experience Honored with 2024 IAP2 USA Core Values Awards
Kimley-Horn is proud to announce that the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro) and its Better Bus Network Redesign public engagement program won two awards at this year’s A Celebration of Excellence in Public Participation: The International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) USA Core Values Awards.
Kimley-Horn was the lead consultant selected to revitalize Metro’s bus network, launching the Better Bus Network Redesign project to evaluate data, collect customer feedback, and develop a new bus network for the Washington, DC region.
Metro was awarded the General Project Award and the Project of the Year Award during the IAP2 USA Core Values Awards presentation at the North American Conference in Ottawa, Canada. A value-driven professional organization for public engagement practitioners, IAP2 is a beacon for advancing community involvement. Each year, IAP2 affiliates around the world honor projects that best demonstrate IAP2’s Core Values and champion the role of communities in decision making.
Metro’s Community-Focused Innovation
The General Project and Project of the Year Core Values Awards are a prodigious recognition of Metro’s work involving bus customers and the broader community across the Washington, DC region in its overarching “Better Bus” initiative, which includes the bus network redesign effort as well as transition to zero-emission buses, modernized bus facilities, improved bus communications, and transit signal prioritization.
Kimley-Horn served as a trusted advisor to Metro through the life of the Better Bus Network Redesign effort, providing services that included analyzing finances to redefine the way regional jurisdictions would pay for future bus service, creating an online mapping tool to collect public feedback on the proposed future network, developing creative graphic designs and branding strategies for the “Better Bus” campaign, conducting bus operator and public outreach, and strategic planning for the Network Redesign’s vision, goals, and objectives.
Metro launched this comprehensive public engagement initiative in spring 2023, with its award entries focusing on its Phase 2 community engagement and Better Bus Experience LIVE/LAB theme and interactive, multi-lingual website that immersed visitors in the details of the draft proposed future bus network. The website was developed in both English and Spanish and included information, videos, and maps to explain the intricacies of the network as well as interactive tools for customers and the community to share their feedback.
The Network Redesign is in progress and is projected to be implemented in 2025. When implemented, the new bus network will deliver fast, frequent, and reliable service that is more equitable and easier to use, supporting Metro is its goals to provide world-class transit service to its customers across the Washington, DC region.