MoPac Express Lane Shows Power of Community Relations

When the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority in Austin, Texas opened the first segment of the MoPac Express Lane last weekend, it was a moment of victory for a project that has become a case study in building positive community relations during a long, tough construction period.

CTRMA announced last Friday that the northbound north end segment of the 11-mile road would open for the weekend, and at 8:45 Saturday morning, Austin American-Statesman transportation reporter Ben Wear got to be the first driver to use the lane.

“This is the first step forward in achieving greater mobility and reliable travel times on MoPac,” said CTRMA Deputy Executive Director Jeff Dailey. “This segment opening has been a long time coming and we appreciate Central Texans’ patience over the past several months as we worked with the contractor to complete this segment.”

“Northbound MoPac Express toll at 29-cents as of 5:30 pm. Users bypassing congestion between US 183 and Parmer Lane,” the Authority tweeted Monday evening. The high for the day, at 4:40 PM, was 39 cents, pointing to the responsiveness of MoPac’s variable pricing system.

Public Contact Every Step of the Way

“What makes MoPac a story about perseverance and customer relations is the way we met the challenges and stayed focused on delivering this project to our customers to reduce congestion in the area,” said Mike Heiligenstein, Executive Director of CTRMA.

Construction has run nearly three years, with the remaining segments scheduled to come online through April 2017. The sheer scope of the work prompted Wear to say that “several hundred thousand Austinites have been watching that new asphalt get built for the past 19 years—OK, really, it’s been only the past 34 months or so.”

Over that time span, CTRMA Community Relations Director Steve Pustelnyk has deployed an array of outreach and community relations tools to keep the public onboard. He holds public meetings, solicits invitations to community events, maintains a strong, consistent social media presence, and reaches out directly to keep affected neighborhoods informed and onboard.

To mark the MoPac launch, CTRMA ran a live video stream from its Traffic Management Center to its boardroom, giving local media a real-time look at tollway operations. (Photo is featured at the top of the blog.)

Steve established a public presence as MoPac Man, even donning a super-hero outfit to build community profile for the project.

“For Arbor Day in 2014, CTRMA partnered with a local non-profit, TreeFolks, to buy trees for 185 neighboring households, a gesture of thanks for putting up with life next door to a construction zone,” said CTRMA Executive Director, Mike Heiligenstein.

CTRMA to Austin: Here’s What’s in It for You

Throughout, CTRMA has worked hard to keep the community focused on what they get back from the project: a reliable target commute speed of 45 miles per hour, through one of the most congested corridors in America.

Last year, when a social media quiz generated its share of negative comments, MoPac Man acknowledged the feedback and took the opportunity to explain what was going on with the project.

When one of the 4,500 social media respondents called him a “propagandist for a project no one likes,” Pustelnyk came right back with the data—which showed that 51% of MoPac drivers supported the project, against only 27% who opposed it.

When another commenter brought out the misconception that the express lane was an illegal conversion, he explained that the facility was new capacity, and therefore perfectly legal under state law. “We are spending more than $200 million to widen all of the bridges and add new pavement, so we can open one completely new express lane in each direction,” he wrote.

And when he received a cryptic piece of advice—“Less Quizzy, More Worky”—MoPac Man showed that a bit of empathy can go a long way. “It was hard to argue with that point,” he wrote. “We all want the project done sooner rather than later.”

Now, with the first segment open, the Authority is pivoting to the practicalities, helping Austinites understand how a priced managed lane works. Wear’s weekend coverage became an important part of the effort to explain a concept that local drivers are experiencing for the first time. “Officials told me that it will also take a while for Austinites to make up their mind, giving it a try, seeing their toll tag bill, and then deciding if the cost is worth it to them,” Wear writes.

For more on tolling as a form of congestion relief, check out the summary of IBTTA’s 2016 Summit on All-Electronic Tolling, Managed Lanes, and Interoperability.