I guess Sims has being reading this blog, either that or the idea just makes too much sense: with sales tax receipts down and taxing authority fully tapped: Metro needs other funding sources. SF Muni makes 15% of its operating budget from advertising; if Metro could get that much, there would be no crisis.

11 Replies to “Sims wants Bus Wraps Back”

  1. This should have been expanded long ago.

    The only downside is riders complaining about an obstructed view. I remember reading an article in the Times or PI about riders complaining about some giant pink, ubiquitous iAds blocking views out the window. I personally think it is no big deal, but perhaps some guidelines could be created regarding the covering of the windows if they are already not in existence.

  2. Two questions that MTAs should ask:

    1) How many people are bothered by bus wraps? By how much?
    2) How much money can we actually get from the wrap?

    These questions are not being asked. If you’re not going to spend time to gauge the impact on riders, just leave it alone.

  3. By my math, the proposed bus wraps will fill 0.025% of Metro’s 2009 budget. This is what Ron Sims calls “significant”, and what I call “paltry” and not worth the council’s time.

    I think they can do better.

  5. I’m legally blind so ANY obstruction of view is not good for me at all as I need what I can get BUT I beleive that that any revenue stream that will prevent any service cuts or can help build service is a positive thing. They just need to look into causing as little impact ot passengers as possible.

    Advertising can be a great tool if used effectively. Ads at bus stops, on schedules, and on the website are other ways they could add revenue. I know a lot of people are against over-saturation of advertising but it really can help fund at least some of the service Metro provides.

  6. Completely off-topic, but I was wondering what some of the engineers around here thought of rail’s place in hurricane evacuation efforts along the Gulf Coast.

    We’re fortunate this time around that, not only does Gustav appear to be weakening (at one point last night it was projected to come ashore as a Cat 4), but that there has been a lot of advance notice. By comparison, Katrina didn’t blow up into a powerful storm until 72 hours before landfall.

    But that still leaves the question of how to move very large numbers of people-in NO and southern LA in general-in a very short time. Rail would seem to be the primary remedy, by its very defintion.

    Given that Baton Rouge is only 70 miles away, and inland enough to avoid severe storm damage, perhaps a multi-track rail “highway”-with no crossings-directly between the two cities could be the solution. No traffic jams, no gas shortages, a much more controlled and orderly evacuation and assistance effort (since evacuees could be channeled directly to stops where federal and state aid have operations centers).

    I looked on Google Maps, but incredibly, there appears to be only on rail track running between the two cities. One. That amazes me. Within the city there are one or two rail loops in industrial sectors, and there are several places where rail lines abruptly end, due either to Katrina, or general disuse over the years.

    So I thought I would throw the topic out to the engineers on here, to take a look at the map, design a system that could move mass amounts of people across NO and perhaps Souther LA in general. Where would you run the system, where you would place its stations (centralized or widely dispersed?)how many tracks would you use, what is your estimation of the capacity requirements (how many trainsets can move X people in X hours), and what would be the cost?

    For that matter, where would you get the trainsets on such short notice (in the absence of a robust commuter rail system in the region). Dallas? Houston? St. Louis? Atlanta? Could these be pressed into service and routed to NO in time? You begin to get into the question of not just how to engineer a system, but how to utilize that system in a variety of evacuation scenarios.

    So I throw that out there to anyone who might take up the task, as simplified or complex as you want to make it. I think this would actually be a great topic for the front page.

    It just seems that running a large number of trainsets over a 24 or 36 hour period could move a massive number of people to safety, considering the short “loop” between NO and BR. I’m surprised there wasn’t discussion of that after Katrina…

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  9. I suspect the full wraps increase the temperature inside the bus on hot days. I have also experienced the impossibility of reading street signs while riding a wrapped bus at night (and my eyesight is good).

    The partial wraps look better though.

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