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ChineseTransit TV, How We Hate Thee
A few weeks ago Andrew from Here In Van Nuys sent me a link to an article he wrote about the much maligned TransitTV. Unfortunately, due to the madness of the holidays, I haven’t been able to address it until now. Anyhow, Andrew, a Metro Orange Line rider, despises TransitTV. The “assualt on the senses” as he calls it ruins an otherwise peaceful ride through the Valley. But is TransitTV really that bad? Let’s just put it this way, Andrew is not alone.
When the LA Times wrote an article called “Bus-see TV”, which was mostly just an overview on TransitTV, a reader wrote a response calling the article “too rosy” and described TransitTV as a “public nuisance” and “an insult to bus riders”. Mariel Garza of the Daily News says of TransitTV, “It makes the 405-101 transition in the driving rain at 6:30 p.m. on a Thursday seem, comparatively, blissful.” The LA Straphanger says he “breathes a sigh of relief” when he walks into a bus with inactive TransitTV screens. The LA Metro Mole is well known to be a critic of Transit TV. In all, it seems the vocal community of transit bloggers and journalists are unified in their hatred of TransitTV, although Metro’s Press release on TransitTV would make it seem otherwise, claiming that in other markets 80% of riders actually enjoy TransitTV.
In the comments of Andrews rant against TransitTV, Wad reports that the TransitTV’s aren’t going anywhere because Metro would have to pay to void the contract. So in other words, we’re stuck with the “crap-boxes”. Knowing this, is there any hope that we can can convince Metro or TransitTV to solve the problems we all have with the service? Well first off, what are the problems with the service?
Photo courtesy of robertokay via Flickr.
- It’s LOUD!!! I think this is the main problem everyone has with TransitTV. Our buses are already loud enough without the added noise of a TV that gets louder as the bus gets louder. A nice thing about riding public is that, given the right conditions, it can be sort of a nice escape where you can read, nap, or work on your sudoku puzzles.
- The Programming Sucks. Let’s face it, the “shows” on TransitTV are a few notches below student quality. It’s only watchable in a so-bad-it’s-good sense. I actually wouldn’t mind watching some quality programming (if the audio issue was addressed), but “The Kitchen Kut-Ups” teaching me how to cook spaghetti just doesn’t cut it. Airlines have some great inflight programming, like NBC Inflight, that successfully integrates enjoyable content with advertising. Also, random x-treme sports footage is never entertaining, no matter what marketing people from 1999 might tell you.
- Bad Advertising. Let’s show our MetroRider community a little more respect and stop airing day-time TV quality commercials for cell phone ringtones, debt consolidation, trade schools, and class-action lawsuit attorneys. There’s a captive audience of young urban people who have jobs and would appreciate more targeted advertising. Plus, where’s the local advertising… we’re on a city bus, tell us where we can grab something to eat at our next stop.
- Useless Real-time Map. This is one of the stupidest “innovations” Metro has come up with yet for TransitTV. Relegated to a small bar on the left side of the screen, this map shows where your bus currently is on a GoogleMaps style map. Aside from being impossible to see unless you are right in front of the TV, knowing the current location of your bus is a little redundant since most people capable of seeing the TransitTV are also capable of looking out the window. This map would be AWESOME if it were at bus stops, so that you could see the location of a bus you were wating for, but unfortunately they decided it would be better to but it on the bus itself.
- TV’s Just Look Cheap and Stupid. It’s obvious these things are el cheapo and have just been added on to the buses without any thought put into where they would work best. They are 4×3 monitors instead of 16×9 screens, and they have some odd industrial design with boring grey plastic that curves oddly and just looks ugly. In fact, everything about TransitTV just screams “cheap”, from the programming to the monitors themselves.
So how can we fix these problems? All I can recommend is that we contact TransitTV and Metro and make it clear to them that if we have to have TransitTV’s in our transit experience, we want these issues addressed. We need to convince them that their advertising will not work if the delivery medium pisses off the consumers, and ad revenue is their whole gig. You can contact TransitTV at this telephone number: 407-226-0204. You can also email TransitTV at editor@transittv.com. You can email Metro Customer Relations at customerrelations@metro.net.
For TransitTV to work there needs to be a complete rethinking of the audio system. People who don’t want to hear the content should not be forced to. There is a company similar to TransitTV called The Rail Network that serves Atlanta area rail lines, and they have a logical and thoughtful way of dealing with audio for their programming. It is not broadcast over the public speakers but instead has multiple channels of wireless audio that can be picked up on any personal FM radio or cell phone with an FM headset. This way those who don’t want to listen to the programming dont have to, and those who do can adjust the audio to a level of their liking from wherever they are. How simple. How smart. If TransitTV is worried that advertisers won’t be happy that riders can’t hear the ads, another solution would be closed captioning… so that those who choose not to listen to the audio but still glance at the TV’s will be able to read the ads.
As for the programming, either a partnership with a true content provider or a massive rethinking of the exclusive content is neccessary, because the whole idea of television is that good programming draws a viewers attention which them keeps their attention through the advertisements. If no one is watching, what’s the point? We are in the entertainment capital of the world, it’s pathetic that Metro and TransitTV can’t get any half way decent content on their screens.
If ridership is up, and everyone loves TransitTV (according to Metro), then why can’t they land any decent advertisers? I imagine Los Angeles is a huge market as far as high profile advertising goes, and I know there’s a huge consumer base riding these buses (even the transit dependednt love to spend money on frivolous things, especially the youth), so where are the movie trailers, the Ipod ads, the Coca-Cola commercials? At least force me to watch ads for products I’d actually buy.
The real-time map is just stupid in my opinion. It’s only useful if it’s visible and there’s not automatic stop announcements, but at this point I expect every bus that has a TransitTV to have an automatic stop announcement. But this doesn’t mean I want the real-time bus map to disappear, on the contrary, this thing NEEDS to be implemented into bus stops somehow, at the very least at the Rapid and Orange Line bus stops. If the technology is there, why doesn’t Metro use it for a useful purpose. Maybe because they’ve never ridden one of their own buses and had to wait at a bus stop with no clue when the next bus would come?
And finally, and this is just wishful thinking, but if TransitTV wishes to survive (and like I said, I don’t think their business plan is necessarily a bad one), they’ve got to stop being so damn cheap. People appreciate quality, especially when it comes to advertising. The whole point of advertising is to convey quality so that a product or service looks enticing enough to buy, so if the medium that an advertisement is coming from is a cheap quality, we assume that the product being advertised must be of comparable quality. Get some decent widescreen LCD’s, clean up the idustrial design, and for godsake if you want people to watch them put them is a place where they can easily be seen.
I feel that if done right, TransitTV could actually add to the public transit experience. I for one would like the option to watch some decent television programming on my bus or train ride. But the keyword is option, because others times I might prefer to read, or sleep, or just zone out. I think we all would like that choice.
Discussion
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Please keep discussions civil: exercise Troll Controll.
not when the windows are 100% covered in scratchitti
I actually don’t mind the Google-istic maps on the TV – you can’t always simply look out the window to catch all the street names. These maps actually have helped me quite a bit when I’m looking for my stop on a crowded bus in an unfamilar neighborhood. Of course, it would be nicer if the maps weren’t so tiny and, like you suggested, if they actually could install these maps at bus stops!
I actually rode an a couple buses today Queequeg and the Google-maps (actually Windows Live Local, I discovered) were being shown on the entire screen (instead of just teh left side), which definately made it a bit more usefull. However, the street names were still a bit too small too read if you weren’t seating right in front of the TV. It does give me hope though that Metro is listening and trying to improve the service.
I LOVE the live maps onboard. Even on a familiar route, after dark, it becomes very hard to tell where you are.
the live maps are only useful when taking up the entire screen. for two reasons.
1. it guarentees for a minute or two you’ll have a reprive from the screaming 48boss.com commercial or pallensmith babbling about how to cut an apple.
2. when not big it just causes headaches cuz they’re so damn tiny and on the VERTICAL sidebar for whatever reason.
Also, when it is full screen it needs to do more than just silence the terrible programming. It needs to have some sort of function like high light the upcoming stops with an icon or something. Don’t even show the streets that dont have stops and if it does, have them less obvious than the streets that matter. As for advertising, why not call out to local businesses along that bus route and see if they would like to advertise on the map itself. A McDonalds is on the upcoming corner why not have an icon for that too. Across the street is a Wamu and further up is Thai BBQ, a 7-11 and Starbucks. Whatever. There’s your advertising dollars AND it’s useful.
Of course the big screen only lasts for about a minute before we have to go back to hearing about how we can make up to 15K a month by reading a 30 page pamphelt, but during that minute lets try and save the rest of the travesty that is TransitTV.
p.s. nice picture “damn there’s a lot of white people on this bus” hahahaha.
Transit TV forces one to listen to it. Not even the airlines, buses or subways deliberately trap their riders in this way. It is rude, intrusive and completely contrary to the civility that the Orange Line promises.
Useless: Sports Forecast, Cleaver Bros, Home Stuff
Useful: News (Spanish & English), LA Forecast
Irritations: Too loud sometimes, No subtitles, Cleaver Bros (imitating an Indian accent – how lame is that), Windows Live GPS not web accessible
I tried emailing them about the GPS and subtitles, but got no reply…
“damn there’s a lot of white people on this bus”
You just made coffee come out of my nose with that one. Not a pleasant experience, I assure you…
Hey! That’s my TransitTV photo you used!
Not that I have any serious qualms to speak of, but someone should notify me of these things. I did put it on Flickr with public commenting, after all.
My bad Robert, I usually add credit (which I’ve now done). If you want it taken off let me know.
I like your work too much to have it taken off.
I agree that the maps are helpful at times. What I don’t understand is the business model here. I know that the TransitTV system is ad supported, but would you advertise on a system if I guaranteed you that 90% of the people could not hear it? And did I mention that of the 10% that could hear it, over half found it annoying at best?
The only rationale Metro has for keeping these crap-boxes on the buses is if its making a mint on the revenue-sharing agreement.
Metro has a multi-billion dollar budget, with over half the costs being bus operations. If it provides at least 1% revenue ($10 million or more), it’s worth keeping around.
Generally, though, advertising is best when it adds value to the viewer. An even better idea is to put schedules in bus books and stock those full of ads. The problem is the ads are zero value, as they typically only cover the cost of printing the bus books. This approach, though, would at least get schedule books on the buses consistently and help riders since they don’t have to make a trip to a customer center to get the timetables they want.
Goddamn that’s a brilliant idea. And so true, the TransitTV’s (other than the GPS map) offer NOTHING to riders and often annoy them, which makes the advertisements pointless. The reason ads work in magazines and during your favorite TV show is because you’re an active audience. Bus riders are a passive audience when it comes to TV, but when it comes to bus schedules they ARE an active audience. Use ads to supplement riders need and want and the ads will pay off.
Goddamn that’s a brilliant idea.
Hardly original, though.
Orange County Transportation Authority used to do this up until a few years ago. The bus books were printed free of charge to OCTA by Auto Trader magazine (!). Auto Trader would have a few ads in the magazine, but now the OCTA bus books are ad-free.
I think everyone is missing the point of the real-time bus map. It is and would be stupid if the only place you can see the little virtural bus is on the bus. Why spend all the time on money on developing the technology if is to be seen only on the bus. It is probabley used in the control room. But when will I be able to look on the internet to see if my bus will be on time or delayed. I believe this is possible if we lived in Seattle.
agreed entirely david… maybe there’s hope.
As a video producer and editor, I think this communication system is essential in case of a major emergency.Instructions could be relayed to the public.In the advertisement part. I think it would be a good idea to post the businesses on the bus route.The same way a street is called businesses in intersection area could be called also.Announcements of coming events in the area would be a good idea to be posted.I like transit tv.It makes my trip less boring.
Real time maps on bus stops is a great idea. Too bad, not all neighborhoods are free of bandalism. I think these devices wouldn’t last a week on the streets.
Another useful tool would be some sort of programme (eg, in java) that ppl can download to their cell phones (w/ screens), which shows the real-time maps for the buses they are waiting for. No problem w/ vandalism then. I also think that it would be impractical to install an LCD screen at every single bus stop.
Is this a GPS technology, does anyone know?
Hubert,
I haven’t heard of that for public transportation, but it certainly sounds like a great idea as advanced cell phones are becoming more the norm. The cellular company Helio now has phones with built in GPS and Google Maps capability with a service called “Buddy Beacon” in which you can see the location of your friends with the same service on the GPS enabled Google Map (with their permission of course). How great would it be if the buses opened up their GPS data to services like this… a simple look at your phone and you could see the exact location of the bus you are waiting for.
Aspirin doctor….
Aspirin doctor….