Public involvement is essential to developing sustainable smart growth initiatives.

FHWA promotes increased public involvement in the transportation decision-making process by:

* Providing best practices in public involvement;

* Articulating the benefits of early and continuous public involvement;

* Providing training, peer exchanges, workshops and technical assistance; and

* Demonstrating public involvement strategies that have been effective with traditionally underserved populations.

Analytical Methods:

* Toolbox for Regional Policy Analysis - A toolbox of analytical methods for testing the regional impacts of transportation and land use policies.

Linking Land Use and Transportation in Project Development:

* Community Impact Assessment - An iterative process of understanding potential impacts of proposed transportation investments on communities.

* Linking Planning and NEPA - The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) have developed legal and program guidance on how information, analysis, and products from metropolitan and statewide transportation planning processes can be incorporated into and relied upon in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process under existing Federal statutes and regulations.

Operations affects land use and transportation:

* Linking transportation planning and operations improves transportation systems management and operations across a region.