How GTC Engaged a Nine-County Region to Advance Roadway Safety
Recognized with the Resourceful Innovator Award, the Genesee Transportation Council demonstrated how strategic, technology-enabled engagement can unite a large, diverse region around transportation safety—even with limited staff and resources. This case study highlights how GTC created an accessible, trusted forum for collaboration to support Safe Streets and Roads for All planning.
Community Profile
The Genesee Transportation Council (GTC) serves a nine-county region in upstate New York with just over 1 million residents, anchored by the City of Rochester and spanning urban, suburban, and rural communities. The region includes areas where nearly 1 in 4 residents live below the poverty line in the urban core, alongside aging populations and car-limited households, underscoring the importance of equitable, regionwide transportation safety planning.
The Challenge of Regional Transportation Safety Engagement
As the regional MPO for a nine-county area, the Genesee Transportation Council (GTC) was advancing its Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program and needed to bring municipalities, transportation agencies, advocates, and community partners together around a shared understanding of roadway safety and the Safe System Approach. With participants spread across urban, suburban, and rural communities—and varying levels of experience with SS4A—GTC needed a way to align the region without relying on fragmented or one-off outreach.
The challenge was to create an accessible, trusted forum that supported participation at scale and captured actionable feedback. At the same time, the approach needed to be realistic for a small staff with limited resources.
How PublicInput Was Used
To meet these challenges, GTC used PublicInput to support its first-ever Regional Transportation Safety Summit; a hybrid event designed to bring together stakeholders from across the nine-county region. PublicInput served as the central engagement hub before, during, and after the summit, enabling GTC to manage participation and extend engagement beyond a single day.
Key engagement elements included:
- A centralized summit hub for event information, agendas, and educational resources
- Registration and participation tracking for both in-person and virtual attendees
- Surveys and evaluations to gather structured feedback on sessions and priorities
- Comment collection to capture qualitative insights and discussion themes
- Subscription tools to build an ongoing audience for SS4A updates and continued engagement
By centralizing logistics, feedback collection, and follow-up communication in one platform, GTC was able to focus staff time on facilitation, learning, and collaboration; while maintaining transparency and accessibility for participants.
The Results: Regional Alignment Through Shared Engagement
By using a hybrid, centralized engagement approach, GTC turned a single regional summit into a catalyst for ongoing collaboration around transportation safety. Those efforts translated into tangible engagement outcomes, including:
Regional Participation and Shared Understanding
The summit created an accessible forum that brought together stakeholders from across all nine counties including municipal leaders, transportation professionals, advocates, and community partners.
- More than 180 survey participants took part across the region
- Over 1,300 views of summit materials extended beyond live attendance
- Presentations and discussions offered a shared understanding of local safety efforts and regional priorities
Actionable Feedback to Inform SS4A Planning
Beyond convening stakeholders, the summit generated meaningful input that could be directly applied to ongoing safety work.
- Hundreds of survey responses and open-ended comments captured priorities, challenges, and ideas
- Feedback supported local road safety plans, audits, and future community summits
- A clear connection was established between participant input and SS4A planning activities
A Repeatable, Resource-Efficient Engagement Model
Just as importantly, the summit demonstrated how regional engagement could be sustained without overextending staff or resources.
- A centralized engagement hub streamlined logistics, feedback collection, and follow-up
- More than 120 new subscribers opted in for continued SS4A updates
- GTC established a model that can be reused for future regional safety initiatives
By designing engagement around a single, well-structured regional convening, GTC transformed limited resources into lasting momentum. The approach aligned partners, captured actionable insights, and built a trusted foundation for transportation safety planning across the region.
Turning Regional Collaboration Into Safer Streets
The Genesee Transportation Council’s Regional Transportation Safety Summit shows how intentional, accessible engagement can drive regional impact. By bringing diverse partners together and capturing input transparently, GTC strengthened SS4A planning and built a foundation for ongoing collaboration.
For agencies coordinating across jurisdictions, this approach provides a proven model for turning complex regional efforts into collective action—see how your team can achieve the same by requesting a demo today.
