

Citizens must drive the vision for their smart cities, which is why community engagement is often regulatory-mandated. Luckily, public engagement has also become smarter. While there will always be town hall meetings, government agencies can no longer make multi-billion-dollar technology and infrastructure investments based on what 150 citizens have said at five public meetings. Trust and transparency are built on active public participation across broad citizen demographics.

MetroQuest is optimized to engage as many people as possible to collect informed input on city planning projects. With MetroQuest, agencies can engage thousands of people, while obtaining proven data and actionable results in support of their planning and investment decisions. Smart cities simply select 5 of 14 MetroQuest screen templates to gather input on visual preferences, scenarios, tradeoffs, priorities, projects, or budgeting to meet their unique project needs. MetroQuest makes online public engagement fast, fun, educational, and interactive to ensure public survey results are actionable. It can support multiple languages and the sites are compatible with any device–laptops, tablets, smartphones, and kiosks.

“If you design your survey to be visually engaging, keep it to five minutes (rather than 15), and ensure it’s responsive to mobile phones and tablets, you can expect participation rates to jump 600 percent! Engaging thousands brings credibility to your results,” advices Walsh.
In one instance, Clearwater Florida launched a project named the “Complete Streets Project.” The objectives were to enhance safety, comfort, and function for all citizens, especially pedestrians and cyclists. One of the primary goals of the project was to lay the groundwork for data needed for the full citywide plan. MetroQuest was used to engage nearly 1,500 residents online, providing more than 28,000 data points, including almost 2,500 spatial inputs that highlighted key opportunities and concerns.![]()
With MetroQuest, cities can engage thousands of people across a broad demographic, while obtaining informed input and actionable results in support of their planning and investment decisions
Looking to the future, the team at MetroQuest is excited to leverage the efficiencies of its offering further to help cities become smart about engagement and drive the cost-per-participant even lower. “This, along with continued product enhancements will position MetroQuest to further penetrate the global market for smart engagement technologies in key sectors such as planning, transportation, and others to make cities smarter for people,” concludes Walsh.
Company
MetroQuest
Headquarters
Vancouver, BC
Management
Mike Walsh, President
Description
MetroQuest is the leading solution for online public engagement optimized for citizen participation. Smart community engagement starts with MetroQuest
