San Francisco County Transportation Authority

Agency Communications and Community Engagement

Leading with Equity

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Background

The San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) plans, funds, and delivers transportation projects to improve the travel choices for residents, commuters, and visitors throughout San Francisco. Projects, capital improvements, and long-range planning overseen or funded by SFCTA focus on making travel safer, healthier, and easier for all. Civic Edge started working with SFCTA in 2006 and continues to support communications and community engagement for a wide range of projects affecting the future of transportation in the county. 

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Approach

Transportation, as a cost in household budgets, factor in the time and ability to get to work, and consideration for neighborhood air quality, is a core area for advancing equity. In starting any new project with SFCTA, our team works closely with staff to identify the goals, intended audiences, and opportunities for public input to shape the project. We continually review recommended communications and engagement ideas to remove barriers to participation that perpetuate systemic inequities. 

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No Project Too Big or Small

Our team’s projects with SFCTA have included:

  • The San Francisco Transportation Plan, which included the award-winning “SF Czar” web tool that garnered participation from more than 800 users in English, Spanish, and Chinese
  • Mobility Access and Pricing Study, which examined congestion pricing in San Francisco
  • Proposals for bus rapid transit along Van Ness, Geary, and Geneva-Harney corridors, including the planning, staffing, and facilitation of more than 200 community meetings
  • BART Perks, a six-month pilot program focused on getting BART’s most frequent riders to try to shift their travel to off-peak hours by offering incentives
  • SFCTA.org website redesign 
  • Global Action Summit Clean Transportation Social Media Scavenger Hunt
  • Downtown Congestion Pricing Study
  • 2022 Transportation Expenditure Plan

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By the Numbers

  • Communications support on at least 10 percent of the 627 projects and plans put forth by SFCTA
  • Support for social media, reaching approximately 4,000 people on Facebook each week
  • 10,000 participants in the first week of “BART Perks” + 20 media hits from local news outlets, including NBC Bay Area, SFGate, and the San Francisco Chronicle for the campaign

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Project Expertise

  • Multilingual, culturally competent community outreach and engagement
  • Website development
  • Social media and digital campaigns
  • Messaging campaign
  • Collateral and materials development

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