TV on the transit system

Ads on MARTA, Atlanta.

Tom Toles editorial cartoon from May 2005.

In Metro may speed up plans to install lucrative railcar video screens, Mike Rupert of the Examiner writes about the WMATA's plans to put test video on the subway and bus system.

I REALLY DON'T LIKE THIS IDEA. Television has the same impact on the quality of public spaces that cars have on the quality of the regional built environment.

BUT there is an opportunity.

If such screens are to be developed, perhaps somehow this initiative can be piggybacked upon by the cultural heritage tourism community (as opposed to the tellers of the national story, "The American Experience" as promoted on the Washington Convention and Tourism Corporation website).

I wrote about video advertising on transit vehicles last May in "Dr. Transit 'Quick' Roundup." Today's Sprawl and Crawl column in the Examiner (presumably unfindable via search but on page 2 of the .pdf), "Advertising Pays Off," is more positive than I am--"It should be interesting and make the trips go a bit quicker (sort of like having a television screen in the back of the van showing 'Barney' videos on a long trip to Grandma's)."

Like the public funding of a baseball stadium for rich people to make more money, I am resigned to more pollution of the public spaces with television. I am not happy about it.

Index Keywords: transit; tourism