# Presentation: 924702

## DOT/EPA Public Education Initiative

## Stakeholder Requests

- Stakeholders want  federal support for public information on the link between congestion and air quality

**Examples:**
- National stakeholder meetings
- TRB
- CAAAC
- STAPPA/ALAPCO
- NARC report
- 	Personal and Public Strategies for Improving Air Quality: A Public Education Campaign
- NGA report
- 	Integrating Transportation and Clean Air Planning

**Notes:**
Stakeholder Needs:
This program resulted from requests for assistance from state and local transportation and air quality management agencies charged with implementing TEA‐21 and the CAA,who need to gain support for transportation planning that will improve air quality.
Stakeholders want more support at national level for public information to encourage VMT reduction
Examples:  National Outreach stakeholder meetings; ECO CAAAC subcommittee workgroup; STAPPA/ALAPCO ECO meetings;  NGA report: Integrating Transportation and Clean Air Planning

## NGA Recommendation

- “. . . ***transportation changes that result in significantly cleaner air cannot be implemented without strong public support***.”
- 		*“**Integrating Transportation and Clean Air Planning,” *
*	**	**	**	**NGA Report, February, 1997.*

## Program Goals

- Short Term - To raise awareness of:
- connection between travel choices and air quality
- range of choices and their impact on quality of life
- Long Term (5 + years) - To encourage:
- environmentally beneficial transportation choices
- informed life-work decisions
- greater investment in transportation and air quality improvements

**Notes:**
The federal agencies  began a collaborative public education and partnership building program to be implemented at the community level entitled the “It All Adds Up to Cleaner Air” Initiative. The two primary goals we are attempting to accomplish are:  

To improve the publics’ quality‐of‐life, health, and environment.  
To support and facilitate state and local entities in achieving federal air quality (CAA) and transportation (TE-21) objectives.

This effort is designed to inform the public about the connection between transportation choices, traffic congestion, air pollution, and public health. It stresses an individual’s ability to make a difference, once informed about the environmental consequences of daily travel choices. 

## Program Design

- Community-Based
- “seeds” new efforts through limited $$, technical assistance, and tools
- National Transportation/Air Quality Coalition
- links existing programs/network
- National messages support local “calls to action”
- creates consistent, effective messages to raise awareness

**Notes:**
Research Based:
A unique feature of this public-education program is that it is research-based.  We began by reviewing existing public education programs (1995 NARC report).  Then, discussion groups were held with stakeholders.  We held focus-groups at several points in the development of the creative materials to test messages and tone.
Pilot testing of media and partnership-building materials and technical support was conducted during Spring/Summer 1998 in San Francisco, CA, Milwaukee, WI, and Dover, DE.
Even the Demonstration Community Phase was part of our on-going attempt to document what works and build a program for the future.

The “It All Adds Up to Cleaner Air” program consists of National messages to support local “calls to action”.  These messages are positive in tone and substance, reinforce and celebrate ongoing behaviors and choices, and suggest doable options such as combining trips, using alternative modes of transportation and maintaining your car.

## New York

McDonalds:  tray liners in 200 - 300 restaurants
Times Square:  electronic message 
NY Post:  full page ad 
NY Mets & Yankees - score board electronic message 
Ford Motor Co., Exxon, Mobile, ESPN, and Reebok
bus shelters (200)
billboards:  rotating messages in all boroughs
Deegan Expressway:  24 hour electronic message

- McDonalds:  tray liners in 200 - 300 restaurants
- Times Square:  electronic message
- NY Post:  full page ad
- NY Mets & Yankees - score board electronic message
- Ford Motor Co., Exxon, Mobile, ESPN, and Reebok
- bus shelters (200)
- billboards:  rotating messages in all boroughs
- Deegan Expressway:  24 hour electronic message

**One Community Success Story**

**Notes:**
Demonstration Community New York city is a partnership of the State DOT, city DOT, and NYMetro Transportation Council.  
They have had phenomenal success securing great high visibility non-paid advertising.  They are really the classic example of how we would like to see the program take form in a local area.  
On May 18, 2000 in the NY Post, New York Demonstration Community had a full page ad featuring the “10 Simple Steps to Improving Air Quality”.  The actual cost/value of the page is
approximately $40K!
On Sunday 6/4/00 the NY METS Baseball Organization (SHEA Stadium) displayed a series of air quality messages at a baseball game with more than 40,000 persons in attendance.  New York Demonstration Community staff have been working with SHEA Stadium to reach attendees and hope to continue throughout the summer.  On display was the It All Adds Up to Cleaner Air outdoor ad  PSA “Car Pooling saves lives and the air
Ford (maintain your car), Exxon and Mobile (don’t top off), ESPN Magazine (You should be reading this on the bus), and Reebok (Take things in stride) are sponsoring bus shelters in all 5 boroughs from May - December 2000.  Just as an example -- the Ford messages are a $10K value!

## One Community Success Story

## 2nd Community Success Story

**Orlando, Florida**
- Hand-painted bus - LYNX
- $187,599 in paid advertising
- Spanish translation of PSAs

**Notes:**
This an example of a community that took a very traditional public education and marketing approach.

The Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority (LYNX) is leading the Demonstration Community activities in Orlando, Florida 
They have employed a unique way of using It All Adds Up to Cleaner Air initiative to educate their community about the connection between transportation and air quality.  Lynx has a resident artist who designed the hand painted natural gas bus which promotes environmentally clean transportation choices at many community events in the Orlando metropolitan area.
Orlando chose to pay for airing the TV and radio ads to the tune of $187K.  However they like New York, were able to leverage more air time than they paid for.
LYNX also benefited from a local radio station which translated the PSAs into Spanish for the resident Spanish Community.

## “New York City’s  ‘It All Adds Up To Cleaner Air’ meshed very well with our ongoing commitment to raise public awareness of transportation choices and air quality issues.”

- Charles Ukegbu
- NYC DOT

- “The federal partners and their consultants provided great information and materials, which the local partners were then able to personalize and use for their programs.
- Jennifer Stults
- LYNX

## Air Time - Success Stories

- Dayton, OH
- Lexington, KY
- Louisville, KY
- Milwaukee/Madison, WI
- New York, NY
- NW Indiana (3 counties)

- Orlando, FL
- Philadelphia, PA
- Phoenix, AZ
- Portland, OR
- Sacramento, CA
- South Florida (3 counties)

**Television PSAs**

**Notes:**

Paying for Air time is expensive.  There is no requirement that stations provide free air time

It has been challenging to get these on the air

Testimonials:  Communities saved money because EPA/DOT did the research and gave them these materials.  Which allowed them to create new things that we can now use.  NY, IN, FL

2 Materials-Only communities - preliminary evaluation reports

## Air Time - Success Stories

- Dayton, OH
- Lexington, KY
- Louisville, KY
- Milwaukee/Madison, WI
- New York, NY
- NW Indiana (3 counties)
- Washington, DC

- Orlando, FL
- Philadelphia, PA
- Phoenix, AZ
- Portland, OR
- Sacramento, CA
- South Florida (3 counties)

**Radio PSAs**

**Notes:**

Paying for Air time is expensive.  There is no requirement that stations provide free air time

It has been challenging to get these on the air

Testimonials:  Communities saved money because EPA/DOT did the research and gave them these materials.  Which allowed them to create new things that we can now use.  NY, IN, FL

2 Materials-Only communities - preliminary evaluation reports

## Partnering - Success Stories

- Results from leveraging resources:
- 14 Demo Communities         290 partners
- $25K per Demo Community         $3,008,889
- Television PSAs        48.7 million impressions
- “It All Adds Up” visibility at 55 forums around the nation

**Notes:**

This is the real success stories of the initiative.

## Community Partnerships

- Leverage our resources
- Develop additional tools
- Phoenix translated radio scripts into Spanish
- Dover, Delaware pilot developed tray liner
- NY partners refined maintenance print ad
- Allow us access to credible local leaders
- Extend our national network
- Provide message consistency

**Notes:**
These are the benefits that DOT/EPA experienced as a result of working with the Demonstration Communities. 

## Alliance for Clean Air & Transportation (ACAT) 

- Partnership of federal agencies, national health, transportation & environmental organizations and industry
- 20 committed organizations
- Link between the Alliance and Demonstration Communities
- Leadership role in 2nd generation messages
- Commuter Choice campaign

## ACAT Success

- Increased buy-in/support from members
- Non Federal partners have established CAT, Inc., a non-profit organization with fund raising capabilities
- CAT, Inc. has received support on Commuter Choice from:
- AASHTO - solicitation letter
- Maryland DOT - $1 M /Illinois DOT - 250K
- Other state DOTs have expressed interest in funding
- NASTO resolution

## Future of “It All Adds Up”

- Assess past experience to build on strengths
- ACAT recruitment
- Community partnership program
- Continue ACAT & Community support through
- Interagency Agreement(s)
- New marketing contract
- Moderate federal support
- Pursue additional federal, state and local partners (energy, health, and land use)

## Future of “It All Adds Up”

- Create new national messages and products
- “Clean and green” cars
- Expand maintenance
- Widely disseminate national messages and products
- Drive-time radio
- Ad Council opportunities

## New Products and Programs

- The First Five Years report
- Marketing Kit
- Updated Resource Toolkit
- Customizable evaluation tools
- Community partnership program
- italladdsup.gov and Exchange

## italladdsup.gov

## “It All Adds Up” Exchange