Pace Bus No. 6245 pulled into a Schaumburg office park, the doors swung open, and driver Reggie Rivers flashed a smile at his first passenger as he shared some news.
“We’ve got a treat for you today,” he told Betty Tabor as she stepped on to the bus for an hourlong ride to Forest Park. “You can watch TV while you ride home.”
Indeed, Tabor found herself testing her trivia knowledge instead of taking a nap. Fellow Route 757 commuter Louis Webb moved from the back seat to the middle, where the two TV screens are, to watch Kirk Douglas in his 1946 film, “The Strange Love of Martha Ivers,” which happened to be on that day.
The bus is one of two Pace buses equipped with flat-screen television monitors that show preprogrammed entertainment and news. Monday marked the beginning of the first full week of such service, and in coming months, TVs will be added to hundreds of the vehicles.
The decision to install the high-resolution monitors puts Pace on the edge of a trend that could expand to buses and rail cars around the country. From Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., cash-strapped authorities are looking toward the televisions–and the advertising money that comes with them–as a way to raise revenue without raising fares.
“With federal, state and local funding constraints, transit agencies in general are getting very aggressive about looking for new sources of revenue,” said John Drayton, manager of vehicle technology for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. “We see there being substantial revenue potential by selling ads inside a bus.”
Even the Chicago Transit Authority is considering the move.
Not everyone thinks it’s a good idea. Those who are concerned about noise pollution and commercialization of government property are organizing against the movement, as are those who think Americans spend too much time in front of the tube.
“What this amounts to is really forcing people to watch televised ads at a time when many parents, in particular, are trying to control and limit their children’s TV watching,” said Frank Vespe, executive director of TV Turnoff Network, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization.
“When TV has been linked to education problems, to rising obesity, the idea that transit agencies would act in place of parents and require people to watch TV is pretty outrageous,” he said.
For Pace, the decision was a way to raise cash and possibly boost sagging ridership. In September, the board agreed to let Transit Television Network of Orlando install 15-inch or 17-inch monitors on its buses in exchange for a minimum of $500,000 over five years, said Blaine Krage, an agency spokesman.
The revenue comes from the advertising that Transit Television Network hopes to sell. While the TVs now show preprogrammed entertainment and news, with a few public-service announcements mixed in, the contract allows up to 18 minutes of advertising per hour, and Pace is allotted another two for service information, Krage said. The remaining 40 minutes will consist of news, sports and entertainment, ranging from multiple-choice trivia questions to TV classics such as “I Love Lucy” and “The Beverly Hillbillies.” A different movie will be shown in segments each week.
Eventually, there will be a fixed column on the left edge of the screen that will give riders up-to-the-minute-details about the bus route.
“We view it as providing the customer with a lot more information than what they currently have,” Krage said. “That’s the main purpose. We feel it also is improving their daily ride.”
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Edited by Patrick Olsen (polsen@tribune.com)
and Michael Morgan (mnmorgan@tribune.com)
