Saving Public Transportation
by Adil Dhalla (@CreativityKTR)
A recent story I heard, involving a baby inspiring smiles from a group of morning subway passengers, reminded me of how big a fan I am of public transportation. The social and economic benefits to getting people places are rather obvious and its certainly great that the environmental benefits are now up there in our discourse. But the smiling baby story reminds me of another benefit – public transit is one of the last bastilles for providing true human connection. Our systems and technology might make us more connected, but we do so in increasingly narrow silos – public transportation negates the lonely world momentum.
It was during a recent trip on Toronto’s public transit system (the TTC), squished in a way that I could only look up, that I noticed something peculiar. By my rough calculation, I realized that only 80% of the ad spaces on the train car were being used and nearly half of those were the public transit’s messages. Further investigation proved that this 40% capacity rate didn’t change much enabling me to conclude that this Bastille was not weathering the storm. One could argue that the TTC was increasing its services (and thus making up for lost revenues) but the truth is that the TTC will transport the same amount of people that it did 20 years ago, albeit with 25% more staff. Unfortunately, this means that the TTC will likely be increasing its fair sometime in the next year. Ironically, we’ve debated the merits of price cuts in this blog but this is once instance where I think price cuts would make a lot of sense.
The point is, like our newspapers or our television stations, public transportation is hurting and it seems like the only suggestions being batted around now (less papers and stations for the first two, higher price for public transit) concede defeat to the recession. While each has their own respective problems, it strikes me as peculiar that most often cited is the lack of the advertising revenue.Traditional advertising is indeed down, but are such essential services really that handicapped by a corporation’s decision to use their ad space? And if so, we must re-consider their models to reduce this reliance and initiative mutually reinforcing and strategically relevant revenue opportunities.
In this week’s Creative Club, our Toronto Chapter will discuss the TTC specifically and ideally produce some ideas as to what the struggling giant can do. For those of you who can’t attend or live in cities where no Creative Club currently exists, I ask that you think about this and hopefully share your own ideas as to what any of the above services/companies can do.
And in the meantime, this related video should get you laughing.
7 Comments
1 Andrew Babcock wrote:
My First thought is good luck with that. Its hardly enough to really on advertising but it seems like its the only viable solution time and again. I think the solution is more sophisticated ads – i know it sounds funny but like in Minority Report where they scan your eyes and then shoot out a targeted ad based on your information. Sounds scary, but not that far fetched.
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2 Lisa wrote:
his is what we get for believing Toronto is the “greatest city on earth” mantra … it stops us from reinvesting, because everyone in Ottawa thinks everything is perfect in the TO.
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3 Adam wrote:
Andrew – sophisticated ads are certainly a viable alternative; this is very similar to where online ads should be going or the way google ads work, they know what you want and play to that
dt – i would love to know more about this club in austin; please inform
lisa – toronto is an amazing city, but our public transit is complete bs. maybe the new above ground lines will help
thanks everyone
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4 David Cameron wrote:
What is beyond me is how the TTC doesn’t integrate with Google Transit. I think that all major cities should integrate their routes into a service many of us use to find directions. Maybe then they’ll increase ridership. While not directly related to advertising on the TTC I think this is something simple they could do.
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5 Adil wrote:
Dave, it s valid point – have you heard of myttc.ca? I believe thats the url. They do a mapping and timing service for ttc routes totally independent than ttc and its pretty darn efficient.
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6 Javid wrote:
When you say nearly half of 80% of the ads are by TTC themselves, you’re saying that you think about a third of that stuff is by TTC. Personally, I don’t think the percentage is quite that high. But you’re right. A lot of it is their own simply because they are aware of how precious that space is up there. Anybody dependant on public trasport will see the ads and quietly think “Yeah I should actually go the mall and get it”.
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7 Adil wrote:
Check out the Bombarier site with their pitch for the TTC’s new light rail transit line. http://www.thestreetcarredefined.ca/
According to insiders, they are the front runners right now to win the bid with trains popping up by 2011
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