Interactive Maps Script
Music
Agencies are using interactive maps to gather ideas for plans and projects and displaying
the results online.
Also called “crowdsourcing,” this popular method gives participants a direct voice in
plan development.
The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) developed an interactive map for their
Metropolitan Transportation Plan.
Their goal was to reach more people than in traditional methods such as public meetings.
So that’s where this interactive web map comes in.
It allowed us to really engage with the public.
The first phase was the project suggestion phase.
So viewers could actually come to the web map and draw directly on the map what project
they wanted to suggest.
In the next phase, MORPC took all of the project suggestions and put them through some project
selection criteria.
Those projects that made it through the selection criteria became the draft list of projects
and were shown on the map.
People could use the map to make comments on the projects, and the comments were visible
to everyone else who viewed the map.
MORPC considered the comments as they developed the final transportation plan.
During this process, MORPC received a total of 302 project suggestions and 718 comments
totaling about 1,000 different interactions using the interactive map.
The map was advertised on social media, e-mail, and at meetings, and people shared the link
with others.
We received over 10 times the amount of comments and interactions than we did using traditional
methods.
This interactive map has become a key tool and landing page for telling the transportation
story in central Ohio.
It's a place that users can continue to access to get project information, cost information.
Now we have a platform going into the next MTP update.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency used interactive mapping to engage
residents in the development of their Subway Master Plan.
They chose a low-cost interactive map tool, and worked with the vendor to customize it
for their needs.
As part of the project, we recognized we wanted to do some sort of online mapping forum to
be able to field as much input as possible.
San Francisco Muni chose an inexpensive tool with a simple interface that let people provide
feedback quickly and easily.
When a user first landed on our subway vision website, they had a quick blurb at the top
of the screen that basically said “We want to see your subway vision, tell us where you’d
like to go.”
Using their pointer they could easily click lines and then draw any lines in any design
or style they wanted.
And then similarly they could go back and add stations.
So we got a lot of solid, well thought out responses.
Working under tight time constraints, San Francisco Muni obtained over 2,600 online
map submissions in just under three weeks.
Earned media provided publicity: local reporters were enlisted to spread the word, and bloggers
picked up the story.
To reach residents who aren’t online, a paper version of the map was also used in
“pop-up” outreach to lower income and limited English proficiency communities.
Translators were provided where needed.
Each pop-up included an overview of the effort in four different languages.
In the Tenderloin community, we targeted a corner in the neighborhood that was right
outside of a park and a community center.
Staff worked with individuals to draw their ideas for the subway system on a map that
mirrored the online tool.
These hand-drawn visions for transit turned out to be very similar to those submitted
online.
Online and paper input was combined in a “heat map” that became a central piece of the
subway vision plan.