A very basic (and excellent) ad promoting bus transit by GRTC/Richmond, Virginia

Photo by JAMES H. WALLACE/RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH.


I have written a lot about:

-- the graphic design of bus liveries
-- how transit agencies like the Port Authority in Pittsburgh use their buses as rolling billboards to promote transit; and
-- exemplary examples of transit promotion in advertising

but the idea of being so very direct in the way that the GRTC is in Richmond escaped me--an attractive ad on the side of a bus communicating how many people ride/use the transit system each day.

In a city like Washington, the daily ridership is much higher 500,000 people or more, even if ridership is dropping, and many lines have between 10,000 and 25,000 riders per day.

Obviously, most people don't have this kind of information, aren't aware of it, etc. For example, how 300 bus runs/day carry upwards of 40% of the total person throughput on a main arterial like H Street NE -- 300 bus runs over 23 hours compared to 20,000 to 25,000 motor vehicle trips.

So this kind of advertising on a bus makes a lot of sense and there is a lot of opportunity for transit agencies in developing marketing campaigns along these lines.

I can also see doing this by line, so that there would be ads on the 16th Street bus lines saying, this line carries 25,000 riders each day and compare it to motor vehicle traffic on the same road, etc.