In the opening scene of a short video, (MassTransitmag.com/12210591) the camera gazes through a window into a brightly lit kitchen where Joel and his sister Kandace are preparing for dinner. After the meal is set, family members bow their heads around the table to say a prayer of thanks. The scene is accompanied by the voice of Kandace, who speaks about how she wants her brother to have every possible opportunity to succeed. We soon learn that Joel has autism and that riding the bus is the essential key to achieving a life of independence he might not otherwise have.
This is just one of a series of videos created for The Rapid’s (Grand Rapids, Michigan) groundbreaking campaign, "There’s More to The Ride." The video series provides glimpses into the lives of a selection of real public transportation riders in the community. After launching in March, the campaign has already caused a noticeable shift in the conversation around public transportation in the region. As a longtime communications executive, I am excited to see that early indications are that this will be our most successful public outreach effort yet because of ability to resonate across the broader community.
In developing this campaign, we searched for stories that would illustrate a variety of reasons people ride. For Joel, who's autism makes driving a car impossible, it's a story of independence. For Irene, a mother, wife and professional educator, it’s the importance of staying connected to the community. And for Ken, it’s the money he’s saving that allows his entrepreneurial dreams to thrive. By engaging the broader community’s sense of empathy and civic solidarity, we win broad support from people not traditionally regarded as stakeholders — no easy task in our field.
The public transportation industry is often faced with the challenge of appealing to sections of the population who don’t rely on our services. Many of the social, environmental and economic benefits of public transportation sound good in concept, but when it comes to asking the public for funding, sometimes there can be pushback at the ballot box and on the opinion page. Transportation agencies must work to show their service as a force for improving the overall quality of life in society, a tool to improve communities, neighborhoods and families in terms of access, economic vitality and quality of life. We all know it’s true, but that message is something we must reinforce with riders and non-riders alike.
Through the specific stories shared in this video outreach campaign, we demonstrate to our community that everybody in the Greater Grand Rapids area wins with a strong public transportation system, whether or not they ride the bus. Our service is not just about moving someone from point A to point B; riding The Rapid is really about community and the ways that public transportation changes lives for the better every day. We are stronger, more vibrant and successful when everyone has the opportunity and access they need. The success of these videos is that they don’t just make this claim; they show it.
In this industry we have grown accustomed to relying on facts and statistics about our service, but we must stop expecting numbers alone to tell the story. It’s easy to forget that each statistic represents a person with a story and each of those stories represents a vision of hope and connectedness for tomorrow. The videos aren’t merely showcasing our bus service; they express what the community wants the future to look like. It’s the combination of the visual narrative, emotional resonance, and future focus that we must share widely.
The intersection of story-telling and pubic outreach in the transportation field itself isn’t new; many agencies have worked to enhance their messaging through media and social engagement, some more successfully than others. As an industry we must master a level of visual storytelling and emotional resonance to win the trust and understanding of the public, to whom we owe it to demonstrate the enduring and unique value of our work in creating truly connected communities.
Jennifer Kalczuk is the external relations manager for The Rapid in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
