During the Summer of 2018, the North Dakota Department of Transportation offered communities around the state the opportunity to participate in a program to develop “Pop-Up Demonstrations” to safely integrate various travel modes to connect citizens to places they live, work and play. The pop-ups – which cost nearly $400,000 in total – were small, short-term projects that tested design concepts to help measure community reactions prior to full construction. Nine communities, ranging from 2,000 to 70,000 people, designed concepts in the space of one day to one month using temporary materials. This is part of North Dakota’s first state active and public transportation plan called ND Moves. Those demonstrations gave NDDOT the ability to grow excitement statewide for testing community design concepts in an efficient manner. Public engagement exceeded NDDOT’s expectations and positively impacted local commerce. They received over 2,000 responses to their online survey and plenty of social media “buzz” surrounding every aspect of these demonstrations.
The Pop-Up Demonstrations helped educate residents more effectively. Most communities sought to safely integrate all travel in their downtown areas. They included a wide-variety of concepts, such as: buffered bike lanes, roundabouts, curb extensions, amenities for pedestrians, and more. NDDOT is looking to use feedback receive to help inform decisions by motivated city officials on projects that seek to connect local destinations with new state bike routes, to provide even more opportunity for communities to move.
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