Many state departments of transportation have become increasingly aware that early involvement of the public is essential for an effective highway noise-abatement program. Several states have developed formats for public meetings and other methods that assess citizen opinions prior to initiation of an abatement program. The Tennessee Department of Transportation has developed a thorough public-meeting and public-involvement procedure that is used before final design phases. This procedure was developed as an outgrowth of the I-440 community workshops. The I-440 community or neighborhood meeting is discussed in this paper and the Tennessee approach to noise-abatement information meetings is presented. In addition, other states' experiences are summarized and compared with the I-440 project. Other states' methods of public involvement or information meetings are explored, as well as their position on negative feedback from these various methods.(Author)