Managing congestion during road construction through Shift San Diego

Steer is leading the delivery of Shift San Diego, a communications and behavior change programs which provides project information and multi-modal transportation solutions to help manage congestion during road construction. The initiative was envisioned to tackle several concerns including: over-consultation by various departments within SANDAG creating confusion among stakeholders, lack of call-to-action in construction outreach materials which only tended to provide details of closures and when to avoid them, and confusion about what website to go to find information about transportation projects.

How we helped

As part of the project Steer developed a new construction and behaviour change brand (Shift), a web portal which aggregates key transportation and construction project information from various sources, and a media and outreach strategy for a pilot project in a subregion called the Golden Triangle. Our team has been implementing the pilot project since late 2014 and has focused on developing close relationships with key stakeholders such as major employers, community groups, and construction teams. Steer has also planned and delivered several 2-3 month long media campaigns aimed at peak period commuters to raise awareness about construction milestones, opportunities to use new modes of transportation, and new tools and information on the Shift website.

The Shift website – shiftsandiego.com – provides key information for commuters including details on local alternatives to driving during periods of construction, an interactive map, live congestion information sourced from the Google Maps API, and integrated links to a regional Trip Planner. The interactive map uses live information to show a broad range of transportation information – including construction projects and transit stops and stations (with links to live departures and schedules) – while other open source data feeds, such as GTFS transit departure information, have been integrated as well. The website has been marketed as the ‘go to’ information source for commuters in the Golden Triangle area during periods of construction and forms a key part of the wider marketing and engagement campaign.

This project is highly complex; it is the first time the iCommute behavior change and Communications departments have partnered on a project and there are a lot of sensitive stakeholders that the Shift project is responsible for reaching out to. The project also involves many parties involved across many construction projects, consultants, agencies (state, regional, and local), major employers, and local community groups.

In addition, the online network of resources in the region was very complication, including multiple agencies, programs, a sales tax measure site, and transportation information. Shift was developed as an umbrella site, but there have been constant challenges gaining buy-in from across the stakeholders.

Successes and outcomes

Despite these challenges, Steer staff have been able to deliver high quality program branding, website resources and stakeholder and community outreach. We have delivered several media campaigns which have delivered increasing numbers across a wide range of media and the client renewed the contract in 2015 for an additional 18 months in order to for Steer to continue developing and refining the program.

Early project tasks focused on developing the program identity, including:

• Brand development: creating the Shift brand
• Web portal development: developing a simple yet attractive website (shiftsandiego.com)
• Media strategy: using market segmentation techniques to identify a target audience and developing a media strategy to engage with them

The first phase of work also included hiring a local Program Manager, developing relationships with key stakeholders, and implementing a media campaign.

The second phase of work has included ongoing integration of additional construction projects, adding new resources to the web portal (interactive map, real-time traffic information, blog), integrating construction outreach activities and delivering further media campaigns.