Andrew Austin at The Bus Stops Here spots the latest in local transit advertising:
What makes this sort of difficult to accept is that I find the Sound Transit paint scheme to be quite appealing.
Andrew also points out the key factoid:
In the case of the CLICK ads I will say this. At least they did not cover the windows of the light rail cars, also it is good that it is local ‘company’ that is covering our little light rail that could.
He’s right: covering windows is a dealbreaker, and I’m glad they didn’t. How would you feel if they started wrapping Central LINK’s cars like this?
BTW, there are way too many Andrews in transitland.
I must say, I am impressed by the look of this! Think this calls for a ride on Sounder to get a picture of this critter.
while bus/tram wraps are not the best looking form of advertising … if they generate money for the transit agencies then I am all for it.
However, I do feel that the advertiser should take into account the windows. It should be relatively easy to come up with an add that utilizes them
think the Alaska MD-80 with the word balloons
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Alaska-Airlines/McDonnell-Douglas-MD-83/0137941/L/
Does anyone have a sense of how much revenue they generate? Are we talking about covering 5% of operating costs? Less? More?
covering the windows is absolutely unacceptable! we hardly get enough natural light around here as it is – blocking out the windows on a sunny day makes the inside of a vehicle gray and dreary, not to mention the fact that people outside (e.g. transit police) can’t see in.
the only place i’ve ever seen the windows totally covered has been in seattle. every other transit agency i’ve seen do this has some modicum of empathy to their… ahem, customers… to treat them with a little more respect. but that’s metro – one of the least customer-focused transit agencies in the country.
–one of the too many andrew’s in transit land :)
Yeah there really are a lot of us Andrews.
The advertising source I think is being lost is the at-stop advertising. put a big sign on each bus shelter and you’ve got 8% (or more!) of operations right there.
at-stop advertising would be great
the sign-ban in seattle would stand in the way of this but wonks already know that. i’d rather have some crappy ads paying bills than some crappy murals gathering graffiti that look like they were fingerpainted by lead-posioning victims. the sign-ban in seattle is kind of silly (what other ugly commercial things can we ban? the sculpture park? the blue-red-green-and-yellow condopuke all over town? how about those annoying signboards littered on every street corner advertising condos? bumper stickers?)
the metro bus shelters look enough like disembodied prison cells as they are (mmm brown steel cages!) – a little advertising for a lousy robin williams movie or for lipstick or something would at least spice them up a little bit and not seem as scary! seriously, those murals inside make the bus shelters look more like a kindergarten class was held hostage inside of them.