In May 2024, the Civic Edge team and our partners were brought in to support the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit (AC Transit) agency by swiftly conducting outreach and reporting to inform the agency’s draft plan for necessary service realignment.
This effort was Civic Edge’s first project with AC Transit as part of our recently awarded on-call outreach and marketing contract with the agency.
In collaboration with our partners at Caribou PR, the Civic Edge team helped organize and provide project management for over 100+ outreach shifts that took place over three weeks for AC Transit. Outreach consisted of on-the-ground engagement at select locations at times considered to have the most foot traffic and in locations most relevant to the Realign Plan. In pairs of twos, multilingual Outreach Ambassadors engaged the public in culturally appropriate ways and encouraged insightful feedback.
Next, we extracted high-level themes and key takeaways about what members of the public said would improve their rider experience at particular bus stops and across the AC Transit system.
Across the 100+ outreach shifts conducted, public members shared various reasons why a bus stop and/or route should be improved and were informed of the realignment process underway at AC Transit. The Civic Edge team pulled this feedback from the outreach ambassadors at Caribou PR into a 90-page report document outlining the most critical factors contributing to whether an AC Transit rider enjoys their commute and concerns. With this information, AC Transit staff could better understand areas where improvements need to be prioritized, including safety, cleanliness, bus frequency, and customer service.