Assistance To Community and Small, Urban Transportation Systems

FoerFront is an expert in helping community transportation providers and advocates for bicycling, walking and other so-called "alternative transportation".

In many communities, public transit is a well-kept secret. Our aim is to get more people thinking and talking positively about your transit service and turn them into customers and supporters.

FoerFront can:

• Assess and analyze your current communications and marketing efforts and products
• Create a marketing and communications plan
• Overhaul your public and customer interface
• Provide mystery or "secret customer" reviews and evaluations of your service
• Create local and community partnerships that will enhance your image and leverage your outreach resources
• Facilitate public forums, gather public input or confidentially research your image and public perception
• Advise and oversee your design and creative efforts

Paul Foer Is A Nationally Recognized Transit Marketing Expert

Paul served as the transportation marketing specialist for the City of Annapolis, Maryland from January, 1998 through June, 2005. As part of a small management team, his efforts directly contributed to a complete turnabout in the public image and customer acceptance of the city’s once beleaguered Annapolis Transit service. His work led to seven consecutive years of strong ridership growth resulting in more than doubling total trips.

He completely redeveloped the customer interface of maps and signage and conceived and created the transportation web pages on the city's site at www.annapolis.gov/transport. These pages quickly became some of the most highly and regularly requested pages on the city's site. Improvements and sustained growth in ridership and revenue led to public accolades and a host of regional and statewide awards and recognitions for the Annapolis Department of Transportation including being named One of the Ten Most Improved Transit Systems by Metro Magazine.

Because of the popularity of Paul's training at The Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA) Expos in Fort Lauderdale, Salt Lake and Austin, he was invited to present and train at statewide transportation association meetings in South Carolina, Maryland and New York, the largest in the U.S..

In 2002, Paul was chosen as one of a handful of transit professionals to serve as a National Transit Institute Fellow, a prestigious, federally-funded program affiliated with Rutgers University. Following a three-day training in adult teaching methods, he presented his class on “Creating the Low-Cost, Low-Tech Transit Marketing Plan" to the state transit association meetings in South Dakota, Wyoming, Kansas, Mississippi and to other public transit providers in Michigan, New Hampshire, Minnesota and Washington.

Subsequently, The Minnesota Department of Transportation hired Paul to help develop and guide a statewide grant program to assist local agencies in developing their own marketing plans. He provided two days of intensive group and one-on-one training to rural and small urban transit operators from all over the state.

In 2004, Paul was one of thirteen transit professionals chosen from a large pool of national applicants to participate in an International Transit Studies Program Study Mission, under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences Transportation Cooperative Research Program. During an intensive two-week trip to tour bus and rail systems in Sao Paulo, Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, Quito and Santiago, this group also met with government officials, leading transportation executives, planners and engineers. Paul's report was incorporated into a study mission report published by The Transportation Research Board.

Paul has written for and has been interviewed in leading, national transportation journals such as Community Transportation, Metro, and Bus Ride. He continues to work with the National Transit Institute to develop and teach courses to transit systems.

Paul Foer and Joe Dougherty, former City Councilman and now Director of the Cheyenne, Wyoming Transit Program (CTP) in front of a CTP bus following Paul's presentation to the Wyoming Transit Association in June, 2003.

Download a sample of an advertisement Paul Foer created for The Deale, MD Merchants Association annual guide shows a mother and child boarding an Annapolis Transit bus at a new customer shelter in Deale, MD. This guide went to 12,000 homes and offices in Anne Arundel County, MD

Paul talks with Annapolis Police Bike Patrol Officers at Bike to Work Day, an event he helped organize for many years.