"They've talked about a lot of ways to ease people into it, and not just slam people with advertising."
Why not give people more reason not to use public transportation? And once everyone who can avoid the bus stops taking the bus, what products will be advertised on the bus? The bus riders will not only have to listen to ads, they'll have to hear about products that remind them how poor they are.
In the future, everyone will wear earbuds.
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Because we simply haven't been peppered enough by advertising.
I guess the overlords haven't learned that people generally do not like commercials.
But, if its offered as a 'service' to help the dumb hillbillies riding buses to find things, then it must be good.
More better.
The Kansas City, MO bus system has already done this. In a two hour bus ride, I hear about four or five advertisements of about 15-20 seconds in duration.
"Are you tired of old fashioned hemorrhoid treatments?..."
"Some people have a philosophical problem with public entities advertising for private entities, (but) over the years more people have accepted it."
Says the ruling-class guy, who never rides the bus. His cronies will dish it out incessantly, and you proles must take it for your own good.
Tar and feathers.
THX1138 was more prophetic than people have EVER realized.
It makes you sorry that you didn't invest in inter-urban streetcars when you had the chance.
"I guess the overlords haven't learned that people generally do not like commercials."
Listen, commie, advertising is the lifeblood of our glory-be-unto-God free market system, the most brilliantest and beneficent economic system what has ever been!
If you don't like choice and don't like receiving the information that'll help you make choices...move to Russia!
earbuds
My wife calls them wifebuds
Why don't they just pass a law requiring people to buy the products .. instead of forcing people to listen to ADS.
Worked for health insurance!
This would solve my problem of "I don't hear / see / experience enough advertising."
Thanks, Madison!
What did you say? Noise pollution attacks upon trapped people is more technological progress down a bad road. When will they implant the chips into the worker's brains to be more efficient and to by-pass the earplugs? I expect to see some teutonic narcissists roll that one out next.
I think pretty everyone who can avoid the bus is lready avoiding the bus. They have a captive audience and they know it.
Why bother with advertising?
Why not just force you to buy the crap their cronies are selling?
The precedent has ben set already, in that we can be forced to buy health insurance.
And it solves the problem of commercial noise.
Plus, you aren't just limited to bus riders.
Win win.
"Why not just force you to buy the crap their cronies are selling?"
I'm sure the cronies making crap would love that, but it misses the point of advertising. Advertising helps pay for the services we take for granted...mass media, mass transit, etc.
In this case, it is the Madison Metro, provider of bus transportation for those who need or prefer it, who will benefit. How will forcing people to buy crap--thereby foregoing advertising--help the metro system?
I predict the op ads would be the casinos.
Hi Ann - Pogo said "Why bother with advertising?
Why not just force you to buy the crap their cronies are selling?
The precedent has ben set already, in that we can be forced to buy health insurance."
Ah, but they did it looong before health insurance! Try buying a regular toilet (not the low flush models which need to be snaked out every 3-4 weeks) or light bulbs that really work and don't contain Mercury, or showerheads that, you know, actually run enough water to rinse you clean of soap/shampoo. And that doesn't even count the Carbon Credit Swaps - look at who the stockholders are of the Carbon Credit coporations.
Freedom of choice is rapidly giving way to forced selections for the consumer, and, as is true with many governmental sanctioned or initiated programs, while not necessarily INTENDING to limit your personal Freedom, that is the end result.
Seriously, how many people are going to be effected? Most Madison buses drive around with a rider or two. With the never ending mass tran deficits and low ridership, I say non-stop ads to get maximum revenue. Riders don't like it, tough.
Oh and Ann, I've never had the good fortune to be able to visit Madison, WI but - and I know this should be on the "Hooverville" threads or the thread concerning why not allow the recall vote for Republicans proceed ahead of any recall vote for Democrats thread, but I am, as usual, late to the feast - but you sure live in an, uh, interesting city!
"... but it misses the point of advertising. Advertising helps pay for the services "
1. Build the gubmint's cut into the product price.
2. Taxes, taxes, taxes.
If a business were doing it, I'd have no problem with it; so I see no reason to be bothered when a government monopoly (we hope runs like a business) does it.
A better revenue enhancer is a lottery machine cash box.
The fare is higher but you might win a million dollars.
>"Surveys have found most riders either accept or enjoy the ads, with about 10 to 12 percent expressing dislike, Gottesman said.
I would be the .01% eager to smash the overhead speakers to pieces with a hammer
I don't understand the big deal. We're already bombarded with endless cell phone conversations everywhere we go.
It's not like buses are some bastion of quiet contemplation.
Cell phones means we're hearing advertisements about people's personal business in every public place. Having some business pay to advertise their own, much more likely to be interesting, services makes a lot of sense.
It's like turning on a flashlight in a sun-filled room. It's yet more light pollution, but not so much you'd really notice any change.
"I see no reason to be bothered when a government monopoly (we hope runs like a business) does it."
I can't wait to see the new health care waiting rooms, doctors offices, and hospitals.
"Most Madison buses drive around with a rider or two."
This. My brother appropriately calls the bus system "hauling air".
"I can't wait to see the new health care waiting rooms, doctors offices, and hospitals."
What? Has some new legislation passed recently eliminating private doctors and hospitals and insurance agencies?
Last I looked, all that had happened was that Obama had served the interests of the private insurance providers by passing Republican-based legislation that will compel citizens to buy the fraudulent insurance instruments of the private insurers.
I've fallen into the Bizarro Thread. Robert Cook is the only one making sense.
Oh, wait. Robert Cook has returned to his normal nonsense.
Advertising is just art, which is why most Americans hate it so much.
Does Ann ever ride the bus? I often ride the bus twice a day. The ads that are up along the horizontal part of the bus are ads I rarely pay attention to. The money part of the bus is the space right behind the driver. That is almost always where the most interesting ads are, and if I had to bet, where the price is higher.
Actually it's not true, sometimes I do pay attention to the ads up along the horizontal part. It's just that usually they are so darn boring. Except there was recently a campaign by a pro life group here in our nation's capital and they blanketed the horizontal spaces. Same ad one after another. That got boring. Mostly though it's PSAs in English and Spanish and I use them as a way to confirm that I still know the basic vocabulary words, and such.
Buses are great and I'm all for continued improvement of them. I much prefer them over the metro.
More than listening to music, what I see people doing in the morning (and the evening for that matter) is sending messages on their blackberries and iPhones. That's one circle of hell or another to me, and I just go along for the ride, which is usually enjoyable. And yeah, sometimes I bring my Nano along, but not always.
If they ever started piping in audible ads in DC I think there'd be a pretty big protest.
In the future, everyone will wear earbuds.
You don't know what's happening, do you, Mr. Jones.
"Advertising is just art, which is why most Americans hate it so much."
Everything is art!
Leaving a dump on your front stoop, why, that's art, too.
And I understand why you wouldn't like that.
Ear plugs will suddenly become fashionable.
Robert Cook said...
"I guess the overlords haven't learned that people generally do not like commercials."
Listen, commie, advertising is the lifeblood of our glory-be-unto-God free market system, the most brilliantest and beneficent economic system what has ever been!
Cook is proof the stopped clock theory misses every now and again.
What? Has some new legislation passed recently eliminating private doctors and hospitals and insurance agencies?
Last I looked, all that had happened was that Obama had served the interests of the private insurance providers by passing Republican-based legislation that will compel citizens to buy the fraudulent insurance instruments of the private insurers.
"Republican-based"?
He really needs to put down the Daily Worker and find a girl friend.
And I don't mean the inflatable kind.
Oh please, leave us alone. Why can't they leave us alone?
earbuds
There was a creepy Dr. Who episode where the whole city used bluetooth's and they used them to mind control everybody.
"'Republican-based'"?
AKA Romneycare.
"Surveys" always find that whatever the gubmint has done is welcome by the public. Red light cameras, weird new yellow flashing/solid left turn signals, increased taxes, water restrictions--surveys find they are wonderful, wonderful!
I'm sure they would never try to influence our politics, though.
Robert Cook said...
"'Republican-based'"?
AKA Romneycare.
Written and directed by the MA Lefty Legislature.
Romney was just gutless enough to sign it.
Pogo: I can't wait to see the new health care waiting rooms, doctors offices, and hospitals.
Every god damned one of them had better be turning a profit if they're spending my money.
"Why are you standing there! Do something you lazy piece of shit!"
I have many pleasant memories of reading while riding the bus to and from work. In the evening I was able to completely unwind from a stressful day. At 40 minutes each way I could consume 2-3 books a week (average size fiction or nonfiction).
Audio ads would not have been welcomed!
The company projects it could deliver $456,000 in ad revenue to Madison Metro over five years...The transit system is facing a $1.8 million deficit for 2012
I'm no math whiz but it looks to me like they're a little short.
AKA Romneycare.
Written and directed by the MA Lefty Legislature.
Romney was just gutless enough to sign it.
And without the balls or common sense to stand up now and say: "I made a mistake!! It was a bad piece of legislation and we do NOT need to reproduce it on a national level. I..WAS..WRONG."
If politicians would only admit that they were wrong and that they have learned by their mistakes, we might (maybe, sorta, halfway) begin to believe them. Instead, Romney still insists on trying to weasel and take a milktoast nothing stance on everything.
If the buses were to have some really cool advertising posters like those from the subways art deco period, that would be nice.
Advertising yammering in your ear while trapped in a bus ....not so much
These advertisements could substitute for bus stop announcements.
I rode Denver's light rail for the first time last Friday. A bit of an adventure. I met the loveliest people all over the place, researching the situation first at the three closest stations.
The ticket was $1.00 more from the machines at the stations than the cost cited online. (so $2.00 both ways, so it was good that I was prepared with extra bills and change) but other than that, it was a thing of real beauty. Slower than the traffic running parallel to the track, but a thing of beauty otherwise. Both directions, nobody ever checked tickets. It's like the honor system with the chance of being busted or something. Anyway, a pleasant female voice kindly announces each upcoming station upon approach and immediately upon departure, so unobtrusively you know right where you're at along the line.
[I needed transportation to and from both departure and destination stations (a midway chunk of the line) so the whole additional non light-rail transportation plus the risk of my truck sitting there exposed to malfeasance the whole time made the effort seem ridiculous, apart from the fun.]
It starts with audio ads but ends with this
I'm kind of surprised at the number of commenters here who seem OK with this. I'd hazard a guess that you all drive. I don't, and public transit is plenty nasty enough without audio ads. I don't mind the visual ones so much, because my nose is always in a book anyway. But it's harder to screen out sounds, and if you're reading and therefore relying on stop announcements not to miss your stop, it's also impractical to.
Anyone who's read Philip K. Dick's short story Sales Pitch can see where we're going here. I don't even mean the meat of the story, but the gruesome depiction of the protagonist's ad-assaulted interplanetary commute.
AKA Romneycare.
Written and directed by the MA Lefty Legislature.
Romney was just gutless enough to sign it.
I guess that's a rather handy excuse.
Robert Cook,
Re Romneycare, with the provise that it is true, too. The Dem legislature passed the legislature and with the huge umber of dems in the legislature there was no doubt that they would override his veto. The good thing is he was able to get rid of some parts of it through meeting with the legislature so it ended up not as bad as what was originally passed. That is what the MSM never tells you about the situation there.
We have 3 gyms near my house. Two play music/ads loudly all the time, despite complaints by the users. They are almost empty. The third gym plays no music and has TV with captions. It is full.
The empty gyms refuse to turn down their music.
If an ad plays in the forest and no one hears...
Such are the mysterious ways of the government.
We once put in a music on hold system so that clients would no their call was still connected. But technical progress soon struck everywhere else, and when I was placed on hold there was a fervent ad campaign running announcement that only stopped every minute or so with a nice human voice picking up...but no, it was another recording assuring me that they valued my business so much that they wanted me to keep holding and listening to their ads.
They could make money for this the same way they make other money. Sell liquor and cigarettes onboard.
rhhardin's gambling machine is a good idea too.
"Come and ride on the party bus!"
"Vegas your way all over town!"
Why do they need the revenue?
Is the system currently running at a deficit?
Nevermind. I see it now.
Why not just charge what it costs?
How about we start by not paying the bus drivers $160,000 a year?
"Madison has had a history of skepticism about advertising on public property, including commercial messages that wrap around buses, said City Transit and Parking Commission Chair Gary Poulson."
So they opt for audio advertisements as the better alternative?
Some days I think San Francisco makes more sense. Except for the circumcision of course.
I rode Denver's light rail for the first time last Friday. A bit of an adventure. I met the loveliest people all over the place, researching the situation first at the three closest stations.
As with most mass transit, they will likely never make money. Part of the problem there, as in a lot of cities, is that less and less of the commerce actually is done downtown, where the still few routes all end up. The problem is geographic - when you have a city that grows fairly equally in all directions, the bigger it gets, the harder it is to cover that much of it with spokes.
I have ridden the Denver Light Rail maybe a dozen times now, and enjoyed it, despite thinking it a supreme waste of taxpayer money. And, no, I have never had to show anyone my ticket, but have always bought one. And, if you are going downtown, it actually is a bit faster than driving.
They are currently building a route out west. It goes by some of our apartment buildings, and will end about two blocks from one in Golden. One of my dreams is to rebuild that building as condominiums after we finally come out of the recession, and Light Rail two blocks away will be a big plus. Timing should be pretty good, as they seen to be making good progress.
Nevertheless, no matter how silly I think spending money on light rail, etc. is, I will reserve some judgement. I was living in D.C. when they first put in the Metro. They screwed up the entire bus system to route buses to the Metro terminals to crank up ridership. So, what used to take 20 minutes, now took an hour. And, the early routes seemed to be determined through political suck (which also seems to be the case in Denver), instead of where the potential riders were most likely.
BUT, I have ridden it recently a bit, and, while the facilities are not nearly as nice, it seemed to do a good job, much more cheaply than taking a taxi (but, then, D.C. has the rest of the country to help pay for their transportation system).
Would I be more or less likely to take a bus if it had audible advertisements? Notably less likely.
Not that I take buses a lot anyway, since I think of them primarily as a politically correct waste of money, often using more energy than if people drove, and esp. if they car pooled. I mostly take them when I am not in a hurry (meaning that business is slow). And, in the far past, when I was not doing that well financially.
Buses do provide transportation to a segment of the population who do not have cars. Mostly, that means people with limited financial means. But, my question is, why am I having to help pay for them?
"Buses do provide transportation to a segment of the population who do not have cars. Mostly, that means people with limited financial means. But, my question is, why am I having to help pay for them?"
Because the law of the jungle does not prevail in America...yet.
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