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Building a New Transit Community
Presented by: Matt Robinson Legislative Advocate California Transit Association [email protected]
In the Beginning…
• Inspired by APTA’s “Stand Up for Transit” and the Florida Transit Association’s “I’m 4 Transit” campaigns
• Began as a way to engage millennials and other target riders (seniors, disabled)
• Wanted to show the Legislature, the Administration,
Congress, stakeholders the importance of transit through constituent support and started work on a public outreach campaign
• Governor called for a special session on transportation and the approach shifted
iTransit Version 1.0
• The initial goal of our outreach campaign was to get people to sign up and act through a coalition of like-minded transit supporters
• Hired Crocker and
Crocker for development, branding and messaging
• As part of the overall effort, the Association began to
develop sample tools that members could use to help drive people to the campaign (bus/rail signage, social media posts, etc.)
• After consulting with a committee of Association members, iTransit was selected as the branding for the campaign
Response to Governor’s Challenge
• In January, Governor called on Legislature to address $59 billion maintenance backlog on state highways
• Cities and counties quickly sounded the alarm on $70 billion maintenance backlog on local streets and roads needs
• Association started educating members on transit’s $40 billion maintenance need
• Governor called for a Special Session on Transportation
• Association sent letters, met with 80+ legislators and the Governor’s office, formed alliances, and testified at hearings
• iTransit was in development, but we needed to build our coalition to help to make the case for more funding
Lyft helps with the lift
• The Association’s 2015 Spring Legislative Conference (an awesome event by the way) featured a panel on engaging stakeholders through social media campaigns
• During a presentation by Emily Castor from Lyft, staff learned of an advocacy/coalition-building tool – Phone 2 Action
• Special Session was called in June, Association began work
with Phone 2 Action in July
• Goal was to have the tool in place by August when the Legislature came back from summer recess
Phone 2 Action and iTransit
• Phone 2 Action went live on August 17
• Became the backbone of our public outreach campaign • Phone 2 Action gathers basic information from a targeted
outreach effort (e.g. a social media campaign) and instantly allows individuals to contact decision-makers
• Uses pre-determined social media and email messaging written by the Association
• Phone 2 Action was launched as iTransitCA.com and within
days/weeks transit supporters were contacting Legislators and the Governor on the need for increased transit funding
• Sole focus of iTransitCA.com was on the special session
and increased funding for transit
iTransit’s Impact on the Special Session • 150+ people signed up and made contact with electeds • 51 members of the Legislature sent letters to leadership and
the Governor expressing a desire to see transit funding included in the special session
• Four bills were introduced in the special session that would generate $600 million in new transit funding annually (two of this bills passed the policy committee)
• In September, Governor released a funding proposal for $3.6 billion in new revenue, including $400 million per year in new transit funding
• All of the efforts, including iTransit were/are critical to transit’s success thus far in the Special Session
Next Steps
• Returning to our original focus of building a transit coalition and providing tools for members (bus/rail signage) and the public (infographics)
• Just launched a
revamped and repurposed iTransitCA.com
• Weekly social media plan which sometimes includes paid content and hashtags to generate buzz (#iTransit)
• Working with like-minded coalitions, unions, etc. to help with public outreach
• Because the funding discussion is still happening, we have to maintain our momentum in that arena as well
Any questions?
Follow us:
@iTransitCA @caltransit
