"Pierce Transit BRT" Video for FTA Overview and Funding


Target Audience: Our target audience was Federal Transit Administration (FTA) contacts that were new to Pierce Transit and were unaware of our agency's first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project. We needed a brief and engaging solution to give them an overview of the project, which was in the design phase. The secondary target was stakeholders, public officials and people directly impacted by the project such as businesses, property owners and current passengers who ride Pierce Transit's Route 1.

Strategy Objective:Our strategy was to educate the FTA on the significant impacts Pierce Transit's Bus Rapid Transit system would have on the community and obtain necessary funds to complete the project. For our new FTA representatives that were unaware of this project it was vital to outline the economic impact on Pierce County and the value of the infrastructure we are building to help them make an informed decision on approving funds. Along the congested BRT corridor, public transit is vital to the community due to the economic conditions in that region. Helping individuals get to work, and providing transportation to access healthcare and basic necessities will help grow the sustainability of this region.

Situation Challenge: We had an extremely tight timeline of only 30 days for this video project. A small two-person team was formed to obtain facts and architectural images from staff and engineering consultants, develop the creative for the video and self-teach new software and video tools. We needed to filter what type of content to include that would achieve our goal without losing the attention of our audience. It was imperative they have a basic understanding of the most critical elements of the project and the impact on the community the BRT will have.

Results Impact: The video successfully brought our new contacts up to speed on the project without them having to sift through dozens of slide show presentations, countless Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. In their own words "I think that the video does a nice job at providing an overview of the project. I liked how it identifies how the route will be used by passengers and how buses will interact with other vehicles on the road – e.g. where the bus-only median lanes are located to improve traffic flow."

Why Submit: Our greatest hurdle has been keeping the public informed and garnering support. It is important they have faith that Pierce Transit is progressive and a responsible steward of their tax dollars. It's vital to the project that the FTA has the same understanding. We submitted this video for consideration for several reasons: meeting a demanding turnaround time, integrating technology new to us, and capturing the necessity of BRT through video. In less than 30 days our team translated years of facts into a direct narrative of our project that was engaging and informative. In addition, we used in-house capabilities to tell a story and keep the audience engaged so they could understand the positive economic and community impact of the BRT system.