The transportation policy elite and their ladder of citizen participation: Problems and prospects around communication methods in New Jersey.

This paper advances theories of public administration, geographies of policy, and transportation planning via an analysis of 17 in-depth interviews conducted with transportation policy elites in the State of New Jersey (USA). In the case studied, these elites sought to facilitate the public's transition to electric vehicles, reflecting a policy change initiated by the state government. However, they were affected by organizational traps that existed beyond the bureaucratic institution in a constellation of related field activities. Using qualitative analysis techniques, the data revealed that organizational traps diffuse alongside policy actors as they themselves sought to diffuse policy. The result revealed barriers that kept public engagement relatively circumscribed, even as elite policy makers believed they were achieving their policy goals via participation of the communities that they intended to serve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]