History of Dots and Dashes/Precedents

Dollar Game

Dots & Dashes follows an earlier outreach exercise called the "Dollar Game," which was used by DVRPC during the Destination 2030 - The Future in Transit Forum, held in June 2004. Locally elected officials and decision makers were provided with five $1,000,000 bills to invest in 16 defined transit projects and a 17th "Other" selection and asked to choose transit projects benefiting the region. Regional decision makers could allocate the bills any way they saw fit to the project or projects they believed had the greatest value to the region and which could be publicly supported. In this exercise, 147 participants spent $733 million on a set of 16 defined corridor-level or system-wide transit projects and an adjunct list of about ten new projects. The list of "Other" projects reflected valid preferences which could not be acted upon since they fell outside the mechanics of the exercise.

For reference, the results of the Dollar Game were as follows (All dollar amounts in millions of dollars):

Dollar Game Spending Results: Destination 2030: Transit Project Spending Exercise
Philadelphia to Gloucester Transit Assessment	$87	11.9%
Schuylkill Valley Metro	$85	11.6%
Broad Street Extension to the Philadelphia Navy Yard	$70	9.5%
Quakertown/Stony Creek Branches Rail Restoration	$66	9.0%
Route 100 Ext to King of Prussia	$60	8.2%
Philadelphia to New York City One-seat Ride	$56	7.6%
21st Century fare collection system	$45	6.1%
Trenton to NJ State House Light Rail Extension	$43	5.9%
Roosevelt Blvd. Corridor	$41	5.6%
Route R3 (Elwyn) Extension to West Chester	$33	4.5%
Extended service frequency and hours	$31	4.2%
Other Projects - see bullets below*	$30	4.1%
Real time passenger information	$29	4.0%
New Jersey Route 1, Bus Rapid Transit Study	$19	2.6%
52nd Street/ Center City Corridor Connector	$17	2.3%
West Trenton Line restoration of passenger service	$11	1.5%
Cross County Corridor Glenloch to Trenton, NJ	$10	1.4%
Total	$733

*Dollar Game "Other Projects":

Keystone Corridor upgrade; R5 extension to Atglen, Parksburg, Coatesville as part of Keystone Upgrade (2 votes); Chester to Philadelphia rail link.
Better connections using dual mode locomotives and new tunnels (2 votes)
Upgrade entire regional rail to metrorail service.
Culture change-attracting new riders; new identity or advertising and "look" campaign for SEPTA.
Better transit connections between small first ring suburbs, eg.: Drexel Hill to Springfield
Safer step on/off from trains for seniors, children, mildly infirm; high level platforms
Increase service to Newark Delaware
Improve connections with Trans-Bridge Lines at Doylestown
East-West subway/lightrail extension across lower south Phila connection to University City via Washington Avenue.
Atlantic City rail connection to PATCO/SEPTA.
Increase service frequencies to/from airport to 15 minutes.
Parking expansion at rail stations.
Subway running underneath Ben Franklin Parkway.
Service improvements: 15 minute peak service, extended hours, one man operations. Proof of payment fare collection; Fare collection improvement and cooperation between agencies.
Subsidized taxi services for "on demand" service.

Strings and Ribbons
"Strings and Ribbons" developed by Dr. Lisa Beever for the Charlotte County Florida MPO in 1995, and used for a 2025 TIP outreach exercise avoided simple individual preference and predetermined transportation choices. Strings and Ribbons refers to the materials used by a group to display the transportation preferences on a map in a 1 to 3 hour exercise. Groups are supplied with a budget, a menu of cost options (e.g.: cost per mile of four lane highway, cost for traffic signal, bridge, etc.), and game pieces (colored strings, ribbon and dots) and instructions to build a regional map of transportation investments based on the group's negotiated consensus. The generated maps were then assessed qualitatively to discern preferences in the transportation networks arrived at by the groups.