Connecting Communities: Rural Solutions for Transportation Challenges

In this episode of Critical Conversations in Transportation Planning, co-hosts Divya Gandhi and Em Hall spoke with Luke Van Denend, Outreach Coordinator at AECOM, and Zoe Miller, MPH, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Moving Maine Network, for a wide-ranging discussion focused on rural Transportation Demand Management (TDM) and mobility access. The conversation explores how rural communities require fundamentally different approaches to TDM than their urban counterparts, from coalition building and community-driven solutions to rethinking the metrics we use to measure success. Luke and Zoe challenge the assumption that technology alone can solve rural transportation barriers, emphasizing instead that trust, local knowledge, and cross-sector collaboration are the real drivers of change. The conversation digs into what it actually takes to bring community members with lived experience into formal transportation decision-making, and why simply inviting people to the table isn't enough. Luke and Zoe also reflect on what's giving them hope: a growing willingness among rural employers to engage in transportation conversations, and a generational resurgence of interest in mutual aid as a foundation for mobility solutions. Episode URL: https://planning.org/podcast/connecting-communities-rural-solutions-for-transportation-challenges/