“Not in My Backyard!” – How to Better Communicate the Impact of Infrastructure Projects to Citizens

The public is more involved than ever in influencing whether proposed infrastructure projects in their neighborhood get the green light. They want to know how the project will affect them? Will it increase traffic in their back yard? Is it the best use of tax payer dollars? And so on. The problem is, under our conventional workflows, projects are typically communicated through 2D exhibits – plan views, aerial imagery, charts, etc. And while this is a language that design professionals speak very fluently, it isn’t a language that most people in the public speak! If citizens don’t perceive that a project will benefit them then it can be extremely unlikely that the project will come to fruition.