The Bay Area Toll Authority knew that bridge toll policies and payment processes weren’t working equally for everyone — but reaching the communities most impacted meant breaking through decades of systemic distrust. Low-income residents and equity priority communities across the nine Bay Area counties faced real barriers, yet their voices were largely absent from the policy conversations that shaped their daily lives.

D&A designed and implemented a multi-pronged, equity-centered outreach initiative to change that. Through focus groups, in-language intercept surveys in Spanish, Chinese, and English, hybrid polls, and express lane surveys, we reached hard-to-reach communities where they were — gathering the insights that informed BATA’s Equity Action Work Plan, program design, and recommended policy changes.