Five Ways DOTs Are Making Highway Sides Great

Rest Stops, Call Boxes Make for Roadside Wonderland

All over the country, transportation agencies work around the clock to keep our nation’s roads safe, clear and driveable. But they’re also responsible for a vastly larger and more dubious area of our nation's infrastructure – the sides of those roads. Because for every mile of highway in our country, there are twice as many miles (that’s one on each side, buster) of medians, shoulders, cloverleafs, and culverts to keep safe, trimmed, trash-free and occasionally even useful. Once the sketchy domain of hitchhikers, traffic tickets, and accident disputes, these marginal masses of land are going through a bit of a renaissance in recent years and are now home to some amazing and, at times, even adorable efforts on the part of our country’s transportation planners. So with no further ado, here’s the official SmartComment list of the best things happening beside America’s byways.

Congratulations! Your Project is Engaged!

But Success Depends on Welcoming Public to the Party

Do you know why we at SmartComment are so into public engagement?

Because we’re a bunch of romantics and, well, the process is pretty much like a wedding engagement -- between your project and its eventual users. It starts with a big proposal, involves a lot of planning and money, some folks want to hurry it along, some want it called off -- and the whole thing can be sunk by poor communication.

Can We Fix Our Infrastructure in Seven Steps?

New Study Focuses on Solutions for Nation's Highways

Americans agree that our crumbling infrastructure needs fixing. Getting them to agree on what to fix and how to pay for it? That’s a little tougher. But a paper published Monday by the Hamilton Project puts forth some ideas it said would kickstart this much-needed initiative.

A New Era for Public Engagement

The Digital Solution Transforming Comment Management

Hello there.

As far as introductions for a new blog go, 'Hello' is pretty simple. But, let's be honest. Hello is kind of hard to screw up. Much harder to manage are the multitude of steps that come after introductions and ultimately go into making a relationship successful. There's listening, building trust, understanding -- all while avoiding the situational stumbles, crossed wires, and unintended slights that can derail human connection from even the smoothest of starts.