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Saturday, June 17, 2006

 

Metro Ad Campaign.

Yeehahh! It stinks on the bus, if you're more unlucky than usual. What else? The bus stops don't have trash cans, many of the times, and well, what's more see below posts.
But what's being done to "remedy" this is the launch of an in-your-face, everyday ad-campaign, which frankly, can be an insult to many riders. You wait for 40 minutes on a holiday, and when the bus finally arrives it's so over-packed that there's no room for more. And so people have to wait another 20-40 minutes (unless they're lucky, and MTA is courteous:)), and once they finally get on a bus they're met with ads on screens, on posters, on stickers on the exteriors, along the ails near the ceiling, to a provoking degree. But so not for the sake of the ads themselves, but it's that they often market themselves, which can be an insult to its ridership. Who knows Metro service and the lack thereof better than the bus riders themselves? Well, to put out ads that say "I love Metro Rapid", when that probably isn't even true to most people, is an insult to people. Why should riders be faced with narcissistic ads when they're already sick of the services in question. They do not "love" Metro Rapid. Metro Rapid is only an improvement compared to an already incredibly low standard, not enough to "love", unless their esteem of riders is terribly low.
After a while people get sick of that, as they still get ignored by bus-drivers, have to stand up whether young or old or with babies in arms, deal with filth etc. Great Job Metro. That you tell people to love your service without even seriously assessing whether it makes sense, is just another sign of the general MTA incompetence.

Comments:
The advertisement is one thing. But the type of adverstisement is another. Self glorifying MTA ads that don't match with reality, at all, is what I'm taking issue with. Otherwise it would be crazy to not use ads to increase revenue.

Also, interesting, what is it that you love with the bus system? I would agree that it's better than nothing, but not much more in general. In fact it's extremely poor compared to those of most other Western cities.
 
When you call Metro "extremely poor compared to those of most other Western cities" which cities do you mean?

It is incredibly difficult to operate a large system in a region that is so auto-centric. Did you know that whenever Metro makes a request of the Los Angeles Dept. of Transportation to establish a bus stop, LADOT's planners have as their primary criteria whether or not it will impact AUTO TRAFFIC?!?

Don't compare L.A. to New York or San Francisco, where people know the value of public transportation and where the buses don't have to compete with cars who think the buses are supposed to get out of their way ...
 
The unrealistic expectation of a functioning bus line in Los Angeles is no crime.
 
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