Drumming up excitment about High Occupancy Toll lanes

The Humphrey School welcomed alumni in the transportation field to examine outreach strategies to increase visibility of High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes.

On Tuesday, April 3, 2012, Humphrey School alumnus Steve Peterson, senior transportation planner with SRF Consulting Group, Inc., and Brad Larsen, MnPASS policy manager with the Minnesota Department of Transportation, presented "Public Outreach Best Practices and Lessons Learned from Georgia's First HOT Lanes and an Outreach Update on the Proposed I-35E MnPASS Project," as part of this year's Regional Planning and Policy Brownbag Series.

On October 1, 2011, Georgia’s first High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes, the I-85 Express Lanes, opened along a 16-mile stretch of the I-85 corridor in northeast Atlanta. Drawing on their experience with the MnPASS Express Lanes, SRF Consulting Group led the public outreach and education efforts, which contributed to the successful issuance of over 100,000 Peach Pass transponders within one month of opening.

Peterson highlighted the innovative public outreach and education strategies implemented over the past three years, including social media, market research, outreach to diverse, non-English speaking communities, partnering with the media, maximizing free media, and others. Examples of innovative outreach strategies include the videos "Keep Moving with the I-85 Express Lanes and Peach Pass," and "Peach Pass Get it and GO!"

In addition, Larsen discussed the progress towards, and outreach efforts in support of, the first MnPASS Lane in the east metro, on I-35E. More information on those efforts can be found here.