WMATA Better Bus Network Redesign

Target Audience: The project's success depended on effectively engaging a wide range of audiences through tactics customized to each audience. Metro (WMATA)'s engagement and communications prioritized bus customers, with a focus on historically underrepresented communities, including individuals from low-income households, people of color, people with disabilities, seniors, youth, limited English speakers, and those without smartphones. Metro also undertook an extensive effort to actively seek feedback from Metro employees, particularly bus operations staff. Metro maintained communications with key stakeholders, including board members, elected officials, local transportation and transit agencies, union leadership, community-based organizations, transit advocacy groups, and major employers/institutions.

Strategy Objective:The outreach encompassed unique branding, interactive digital experiences, an emphasis on in-person events targeted to underrepresented groups, and heavy print/digital promotion. Initial efforts focused on raising awareness of the redesign and gathering input on community needs. This input helped develop a systemwide new visionary bus network. Audiences explored the network and provided feedback through the "Experience" campaign, consisting of in-person events ("Experience LIVE!") and an interactive digital site (the scientist-themed "Experience LAB!"). Public and stakeholder feedback on the Visionary Network helped refine the final proposed 2025 bus network, presented on the "Discovery Tour" via a series of events and an interactive digital hub showcasing the revised network.

Situation Challenge: The Better Bus Network Redesign project is the first comprehensive redesign of the Metrobus network, which carries half a million passengers daily, since its 1973 inception. Changing bus service for millions of customers required a thorough outreach campaign to identify community needs, address service gaps, and explore new opportunities – recognizing that quantitative data, while useful, never communicates the whole story. Through outreach, Metro raised awareness about the redesign, captured insights on the current system, and received detailed feedback on proposed service adjustments to create the best-possible resource-neutral network that will better meet the evolving needs of the region, as well as a visionary network that can be implemented over time as resources become available.

Results Impact: Through the Better Bus Redesign effort, Metro raised awareness and gathered valuable feedback to develop and refine a rider-focused bus network. The project reached people in person through over 200 public events, and digitally with over 111,000 website visits. Across all project phases, the campaign resulted in over 45,000 interactions – more than 20% in languages other than English – with community members and more than 1,590 interactions with employees. The feedback received helped create a network that, as intended, improves service in equity communities, establishes a complete overhaul to the route naming system, and provides access to thousands of additional jobs. The new network is perceived by over 70 percent of low-income customers as the same or better for their travel needs.

Why Submit: Metro's board members and stakeholders noted that the outreach campaign "set a new standard for engagement in the region." The comprehensive effort exemplified a willingness to test out new tactics and pivot as necessary. Metro promoted the project extensively, including print and digital ads, social media, e-newsletters, 15 promotional videos, and over 634,200 distributed flyers. The team connected with customers via community events and leveraged research to develop custom digital resources, helping audiences understand the system-wide changes. The efforts captured over 21,000 comments and 6,500 survey responses, leading to board adoption of the new network and long-term improvements for transit in the Washington, DC region. Metro plans to begin implementing the new network in 2025.