MetroRiderLA

While Metro awarded Miss Traffic her tiara and t-shirt, San Bernardino County’s largest transit operator, Omnitrans, announced the winners of its D.I.Y. TV Student TV Commercial Contest earlier this month. The contest, which had local high school students competing to create a commercial promoting Omnitrans, had significantly higher stakes than Metro’s Miss Traffic. A grand prize package of $1,000 cash, a new laptop computer, a year of free bus rides, and the honor of having the winning commercial played on local television and in local movie theaters surely motivated these Inland Empire kids to come up with creative ways to promote something most teenagers might dread, riding the bus.

The online votes were tallied and the grand prize went to Trevor Stevens of Redland High School for his spot, “Save Gas Use A Pass“. The commercial pits transit user against car driver in a turtle-and-the-hare race, where the bus rider comes out victorious because high gas prices and an empty wallet stop the car driver in his tracks. Trevor, who according to the Inland Empire newspaper The Sun has plans to embark in a career in TV and film production, chose to focus on the money savings that come from riding public transit because “the biggest issue for students right now is the price of gas”.

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The Miss Traffic Saga has finally come to a close. The videos were posted, the people watched, and the votes have been tallied. Your second runner-up is the sassy Sharon Butler, with 428 votes. Your first runner-up is the spunky Roz Brown, who garnered 445 votes. And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…

With an astounding 1,867 votes, your very own Miss Traffic…

Stefanie Perez!!!

The little latina that could, did, and she did it with flying colors. Picking up more votes than Roz and Sharon combined times two, the people of Los Angeles had no doubt who they wanted to represent their Metro system. What is it about Stefanie that makes her the obvious choice for Miss Traffic? Is it her mysterious smile? Her dry wit? Her undeniable love of missing traffic with Metro? Or maybe it’s a combination of all those things and more… that je ne c’est sais quoi that defines all women who capture our hearts and minds.

It’s not known whether Stefanie has received her prize package yet, but I know a lot of ladies and gentlemen (maybe even yours truly) who are very jealous. It’s not every day you get a free Metro t-shirt and props from an advertising photo shoot.

It seems to me that the Miss Traffic Contest was a rousing success. In a period of 6 days since the finalists were announced, 2,270 votes were cast, more than half of them for Stefanie. In contrast, Metro’s highly publicized Imagine campaign has a poll that has only received 708 votes since March 12th. And the Imagine blog has a poll that has only received 77 votes in the same time period. I guess the old adage is true: sex sells.

Things aren’t that sexy over in Austin, where you may recall they are holding a similar contest. But, a guy named Chris Stangland has submitted a video that might give Stefanie a run for the money if Miss Traffic goes national. Imagine what Chris could do if he was competing for a Metro t-shirt instead of a stupid iPhone and $500 cash.

For those of you who weren’t aware, today is the last day to enter Metro’s Miss Traffic Contest! Write 100 words on how you miss traffic for the chance to win a t-shirt, a tiara, and a bouquet of flowers! Oh, and receive the honor of being L.A.’s official Miss Traffic!

This poll will close Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 12:00 PM.

Previously:

• Miss Traffic Vs. i-Ride

Who will win, Metro’s Miss Traffic or Capital Metro’s i-Ride?

Cue the Rocky theme song, because today ladies and gentlemen, we here at MetroRiderLA are bringing you ringside to the transit fight of the season….

In one corner we have the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority, better known as Metro. Metro is a heavyweight in the transit world, holding the record for third largest transit agency in the country. Metro has a daily ridership of 1.6 million people, 191 bus routes covering 1,433 square miles, 5 rail lines (3 light rail and 2 subway) with 73 miles of track, and was voted “America’s Best” in 2006 by the American Public Transit Association. In addition, Metro has made numerous television and film appearances. Metro is the very definition of a contender.

In the other corner we have the Capital Metropolitan Transit Authority, also known as Capital Metro. This bantamweight from Austin, TX is scrappy in every sense of the word. With only 68 bus routes, no rail (a commuter line is scheduled to open this year), and a ridership of 130,000, Capital Metro is a David to Metro’s Goliath. Sure Capital Metro offers dirt cheap fares (50 cents is the most you’ll pay), interactive Google based bus maps, HTML formated schedules, and Wi-Fi access for passengers, but does that stuff even matter?

What’s brought these two clearly unbalanced fighters here today is the marketing contests both agencies are currently promoting. Metro will henceforth be represented by Miss Traffic and Capital Metro will be reprsented by i-Ride. Miss Traffic and i-Ride are both contests that attempt to get people excited about transit by telling stories about why they ride. This fight is over which contest is better.

Let’s get ready to rumble!!!

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Through random selection (”eeny, meeny, miny, moe” to be exact) a winner has been chosen for the Nike Run Hit Remix Contest. Congratulations to MetroRider commenter “Ed”! In addition to being lucky, Ed was also the first to comment on the contest and a participant in the race! What’s more, he recommended arriving by Metro Rapid 754 South, which also happens to be the way he got there. Talk about walking the walk! Or perhaps in this case it should be “running the run”! Ed reports that the 754 was packed, a sign that perhaps Get LA Moving’s Red Line from Sylmar to San Pedro, with a stop at Exposition Park, is a necessity?

Enjoy the shoes Ed, and thanks for being a MetroRider.

Just want to remind all MetroRider readers that tomorrow is the last day to enter for your chance to win the free Nike Zoom RS+ running shoes courtesy of the Nike Run Hit Remix race this Saturday.  All you have to do is go to this post and tell us how to get to the race using Metro.  Good luck!