Florida Department of Transportation District 5 Regional Transportation Center
MERGING FREEWAY AND ARTERIAL TRAFFIC OPERATIONS IMPROVES MOBILITY AND SAFETY
Central Florida’s strong economic development and rapid population growth is increasing traffic on the region’s highway and arterial roads. The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) District Five’s Regional Traffic Management Center (RTMC) needed to facilitate communication between the agencies that manage highway and arterial roads. It also needed to inform the public and the media about efforts to improve traffic congestion and keep people and goods moving on Central Florida roadways.
- Client: Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT)
- Website: cflsmartroads.com
- Services: Community outreach, workforce development, writing & editing, photography, news releases & distribution, internal communications, onsite logistics, press events, subject matter expertise, presentations, public meetings, email blasts, PSAs, crisis communications, public awareness and information, database management, interactive programming, news monitoring
- Markets: Government, transportation, ITS, emerging technologies, integrated corridor management
Challenge
Central Florida’s strong economic development and rapid population growth is increasing traffic on the region’s highways and arterial roads. FDOT District Five’s RTMC needed to inform the public and the media about efforts to improve traffic congestion and keep people and goods moving on Central Florida roadways. In addition, FDOT is responsible for addressing area transportation challenges by developing and deploying high-tech solutions, such as the use of drones at traffic incident scenes and other traffic-generating events or the deployment of connected vehicle (CV) communication devices along busy roadways. It turned to Global-5 for help telling these stories to the public by taking complex information and turning it into compelling, easy-to-understand narratives.
Solution
Global-5 embedded a communications specialist in FDOT District Five’s RTMC to support implementation of the state’s first Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) program, which is designed to maximize existing resources and provide travelers in Central Florida with the safest, most informed driving experience. Global-5’s expert marketing team also became fully engaged with the spectrum of transportation systems management and operations (TSM&O) functions — such as traffic incident management, CV/AV, and traffic operations — and launched a complete communications effort to share FDOT’s stories with the public.
GETTING THE STORY FROM THE SOURCE
Attending regular RTMC meetings and being available for impromptu conversations with staff helps Global-5 collect intelligence around FDOT efforts. Relationships with these subject matter experts help us get the whole story.
KEEPING EVERYONE INFORMED
Global-5 uses a variety of different media to share information about FDOT District Five’s RTMC. We consistently post to FDOT social media, write articles for public-facing and industry-facing newsletters, develop briefing materials for transportation leaders in the community, and lead media relations efforts for especially impactful stories. We also created an information kiosk housed at the RTMC that tells the TSM&O story. The kiosk’s interactive touch-screen display enables RTMC visitors to read and watch videos about the topics they find most interesting.
STRENGTHENING TIES WITH COMMUNITY AND STAKEHOLDERS
Global-5 helped FDOT District Five create a new partnership with the Girl Scouts of Citrus Council and develop a comprehensive Car Care badge that taught emergency roadside procedures such as how to change a tire, check vehicle fluids, and jump start a vehicle. We also documented best practices in planned special event traffic management for public and industry education. We even established new community awareness programs that promoted workforce development in the traffic engineering field and that encouraged safe driving practices, particularly at busy travel times and during heavier-than-normal traffic volumes.