Building a New Transit Communitycaltransit.org/cta/assets/File/2015 Fall Conference/Presentation Files... · campaign • Governor called ... coalition to help to make the case for

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

iTransitCA.com

www.iTransitCA.com

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

www.iTransitCA.com

Any questions?

Follow us:

@iTransitCA @caltransit