EHI led community and stakeholder engagement for the SMARTer Mobility Program — SMART’s comprehensive evaluation of its fixed route, connector, and microtransit pilot services across Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne Counties. Working with Michael Baker International, EHI’s job was making sure the service recommendations that came out of this study reflected the people who ride the system today and the people who could ride it tomorrow.

Engaging a service area this large took more than a few public meetings. EHI designed and executed a multi-channel engagement effort built to meet people where they are — pop-up info tents, in-person and online public meetings, community events, and on-bus and online surveys reaching every corner of the region. In total, the effort generated nearly 3,000 completed surveys and hundreds of comments, while dozens of meetings with stakeholders, elected officials, transit providers, and the program’s working groups kept decision-makers and the community moving in the same direction. Behind it all sat a project website and engagement portal — designed by EHI — offering interactive maps, surveys, and informational videos, amplified through social media campaigns and on-bus advertisements.

What set this engagement effort apart is who it reached. EHI placed special emphasis on participants with limited English proficiency, persons with disabilities, youth, and seniors — deploying native Arabic and Spanish speakers at targeted events, producing printed materials and surveys in multiple languages, and partnering with the organizations these communities already trust, from senior centers to transit advocacy groups to community paratransit operators.

The result was engagement data that actually represented the region: where people travel, how often they ride, what would get them on the bus, and how far they’re willing to walk to a stop. That input fed directly into the service recommendations that will shape SMART’s network for years to come.

A transit system can only serve a region as well as it understands it. By reaching riders in their own languages, neighborhoods, and routines, EHI helped SMART build that understanding — and a better network because of it.