Public Transportation and Sex Appeal

I'm kidding about the sex appeal bit, sort of.  But we'll get to that in a moment...

Let's Talk about Public Transit, Baby...

I know I talk about public transportation a lot.  It likely stems partially from the fact that I don't own a car.  And from the fact that I hate driving.  And from the fact that it's (usually) faster than biking. 

Historically, there was very much a 'build it and they will come' mentality with public transportation.  People learned to use and love public transportation because it was there.  Now, this was partially because cars were relatively new, and infrastructure such as highways that made car travel convenient were only just being built.  For example, consider this:  according to the American Public Transportation Association, the highest recorded ridership in any year was 1946, with 23.5 billion rides that year.  (That's a lot of people using public transit.)

Just after that point, the United States came home from WWII, and car ownership expanded widely.  This was along with the passage of the Federal Highway Act in 1956 that led to the construction of many of today's modern interstates and highways.

Also, there were beautiful cars like this:

So the people started driving.  And so what happened to public transportation in all this?  The main problem:  it's just not sexy.

There are a lot of undesirable things about waiting around to stuff yourself into a wheeled, metal tube of a vehicle with dozens of other just to go somewhere. 

But from my previous blog posts, you can see why public transportation is good, and why it is important for communities to have this service to offer to citizens. 

So then, what's the problem?

Sex Appeal of Public Transportation

Getting Creative

This is the problem that many public transportation agencies around the country are grappling with.  How to make public transportation seem as awesome as it really is.  Over the past couple decades, public transportation has come a long way in many places toward becoming a legitimate alternative to driving, with the use of technology to create better routes that run longer and more on time.  So then the answer to the problem? Mike LeJune, the creative director of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority has a strategy.  That's right:  creative director.  And in truth, it's all a branding problem. (You can read a prettier article, here.)

People don't want to ride the subway, or the bus.  They want to ride BART, or the Metro, or MAX (here in Fort Collins). 

Look at this.  It's like a sexy centerfold photo for a magazine.

Advertising is Squishy

Now this is all easier said than done.  It is difficult to prove that advertising and branding has any effect on increasing ridership in public transportation, and where there isn't proof, there is rarely tax dollars to support it. 

Furthermore, it veers into the fuzzy area of economics, where the value of advertisement and branding is often tied up in the true value of a good/service.  However, with public goods like public transportation, estimating the true value of things is nearly impossible.

But it is a thought.

And with that, I will leave you with a few examples of some weird, but oddly catchy commercials for transit systems around the country.  Enjoy:

• A commercial for extended nighttime service for Coast Public Transit in Mississippi:  here
• A fun little slow-and-steady-wins-the-race advertisement:  here
• My personal favorite, an advertisement for the Silver Line around Washington DC: here