Northwest WA: Advanced Simulation Launches this Fall

By Kyle Margules Orland
J-Lab Staff Writer
July 3, 2003

More than 2,500 people are expected to weigh in to identify the worst traffic problems in the Everett, WA, area before the local media partners launch Phase II of their “Fix Your Commute” project, which will be an advanced simulation exercise.

Mark Briggs, new media editor of The Everett Herald, described the project’s second phase, set to launch this fall, as “a more advanced interactive experience, allowing users to build roads, add HOV lanes, charge tolls – really make a difference in a simulated way.

“They get a bill and have to come up with funding, too, since we’re trying to base the game in as much reality as possible,”” Briggs said.

The Herald and its partners, KIRO-7 TV and The News Tribune, will use the data from Phase I to design the second phase. So far, 1,800 visitors have responded online to name the region’s worst traffic problems. Briggs said he expects another 700 to respond before July 14, when the first phase ends.

Briggs said the inspiration for “Fix Your Commute” came from his earlier experience with the interactive “Waterfront Renaissance Project,” a clickable map inviting users to vote online for waterfront development options. He also drew on his own experiences sitting in traffic. “It may sound selfish to want to create some huge project because of my own personal frustration with traffic, but I think some of the best projects occur when journalists think like readers instead of like journalists,” Briggs said.

Response to the first phase has been overwhelmingly positive, Briggs said, noting that people seem to appreciate being asked their opinion on traffic congestion. “I think a lot of folks are sick of reading what everyone else has to say about our traffic problems and welcome the chance to weigh in themselves.”

Response to a recent series of public forums the paper sponsored, however, has been less than expected. “The turnout for our public forums was disappointing… but I think it only underscores the importance of developing interactive tools to reach regular people in the course of their daily life. People don't have time to attend public meetings. Besides, who wants to fight the traffic to get there?”

Briggs said he hopes the experience he gains from the “Fix your Commute” project will make smaller-scale interactive exercises easier to produce more often. “I can see that happening as more and more projects come online and we all get a better sense of what works and what doesn't,” Briggs said. “It will reduce some of the risk I think some news organizations see when considering these types of ‘experiments.’ ”

Briggs predicts interactive projects like “Fix Your Commute” will become more ubiquitous in the future. “Eventually, [interactive exercises] will become staples in our news planning, just like every big Sunday piece has a sidebar and infographic now. In a few years, even daily news coverage will have a digital interactive component that adds a third dimension to the story. We don't live in a two-dimensional world and our readers won't let us report in one for much longer.”