Grand River Transit

[robdrimmie]

Car sickness results from looking at a fixed point while a vehicle is in motion, no?

Not necessarily fixed points. Motion sickness is a result of conflicting input from our visual and vestibular systems. I don't get motion sick because of wraps, but I do if I try to read in a car or bus or whatever. There is something weird that happens on wrapped busses though, I'm definitely not processing visual information in a typical way.

It's also just irritating because watching the world outside the bus is one of my favourite experiences.

Given that there's relatively little money in bus advertising I'm genuinely curious what the difference in value of a full wrap versus just the standard large banners along the side is to GRT. If all advertising is bringing in 1 million, that difference from a half dozen or whatever busses can't account for too much of totals.

I'm going to start complaining (gently, of course) about every wrapped bus I'm on though. There's some good points in this thread that a lot of people wouldn't realize that it's a negative experience, and generally speaking any revenue dollar that doesn't come from tax or fare for public transit is likely viewed very positively. I came from the opposite (and at least as invalid) assumption, where everyone just hates them because they're dumb and ugly.

(edit: Sorry about the weird quoting style, I came from a different forum with different conventions and had posted this before realizing I'd done it all wrong)

[Belmonster]

Yeah, those wrapped busses are incredibly aggravating. I don't care about how they look from the outside, but the passenger experience is miserable. While it's more or less possible to see out of the windows on a clear and sunny day, as soon as it gets even a little dark or rainy you're effectively riding blind.

Next time I encounter one of those busses, I'll fill out the GRT online feedback form to complain.

[KevinT]

That's what I do with presto. Load 40-50 at Charles street. And I only use it a few times a year so any unused funds are still there several months later when I take the next trip requiring presto.

You can purchase and load Presto cards at the Charles St terminal??!  Great to know, thanks!

A year and a half ago I wanted to take the GO Train from Kitchener to Weston, then UPX to the airport.  I assumed I could buy myself a Presto card at the Kitchener GO/Via station in order to take advantage of fare-by-distance and the Presto discount, but there was no way (that I could spot) to buy a card there.  To add insult to injury, GO's paper ticket machine would only sell me full-fare Kitchener to Union, not Kitchener to Weston.  :-(

[KevinL]

The Regional terminals, and UW's Turnkey desk, are the official Presto agents in Waterloo Region. The relatively low amount of service at the train station (only morning departures) versus the bus terminals (all day) make the latter the more useful option.

[timio]

18 GO buses and 4 GO trains depart the VIA station every weekday. Mind you, every bus stops at Charles Street before proceeding express to Bramalea, but still, that's a large number of departures.

[Chris]

18 GO buses and 4 GO trains depart the VIA station every weekday.  Mind you, every bus stops at Charles Street before proceeding express to Bramalea, but still, that's a large number of departures.

Your post gave me a bad flashback to high school math....

[panamaniac]

18 GO buses and 4 GO trains depart the VIA station every weekday.  Mind you, every bus stops at Charles Street before proceeding express to Bramalea, but still, that's a large number of departures.

Your post gave me a bad flashback to high school math....

If those buses are moving east at 50kmh and the trains are moving west at 75kmh ....

[timio]

If the trains were moving west that fast I'd wonder what fantasy land we were living in...

[Bob_McBob]

Here's the demolition and little collection of buses at the site of the future GRT garage near University and Northfield, if anyone is interested.

[Canard]

Neat!

The Nova’s look worried.

[Pheidippides]

The difference between the Coke and airline examples vs. the bus wraps is that with the Coke and airline exterior paint or the interior stickers in the RyanAir example, while yes they may slightly obnoxious or tacky, they don't actually impede your use of the service/product; you can still use the service as you would had the advertising not been there (i.e. they aren't blocking the windows on the plane or blocking the spout on a Coke can). The ironic thing is, you don't actually NEED a window on a plane to use the plane properly so they could have covered those windows - and if it made you airsick you can simply close the window shade (not possible on a bus).

I still can't find a reference to the existing contract (it doesn't help that the region has a new website). The only references I have are this note in the 2010 budget ("Advertising greater than anticipated due to new contract"), this old Community Edition article, and a Councillor Jane Mitchell blog post. 

Interesting that the comment from regional staff on Councillor Mitchell's blog states that only 5 full bus wraps are allowed in the fleet at any one time. I think there must more than that at the moment (Gino's Pizza, DaveFM, Make-A-Wish, the jewelry store, do GRT's hybrid bus logos count?, ?), but also explains why so many half-wraps have started showing up. It would be interesting to know what the definition of "full" is; all windows covered 100%, or 50% of windows covered 100% with 50% cover less than 100%?

The 2018 budget indicated that the region had $1,268,000 in revenue from "Advertising, Other fees & charges" in 2017. That would include the advertising revenue from bus shelter ads (~150), bus bench ads, interior bus ads, regular exterior bus ads, transit station (Charles, etc.) ads, as well as the bus wrap ads, and whatever else is lumped in "other fees & charges" (photo ID fees?).

On the #11 this afternoon:
   

[jamincan]

Someone had asserted that a company like Coke would never dilute their brand by plastering their products with other brands as a point against advertising on GRT.

[tomh009]

Someone had asserted that a company like Coke would never dilute their brand by plastering their products with other brands as a point against advertising on GRT.

Arguably GRT's brand is not quite as valuable as Coke's, making that argument moot.

(And that's not to defend the wraps. Probably restricting them to half-wraps would be a fairly small financial impact, and keep the windows clear.)

[ijmorlan]

[....]

Interesting that the comment from regional staff on Councillor Mitchell's blog states that only 5 full bus wraps are allowed in the fleet at any one time. I think there must more than that at the moment (Gino's Pizza, Make-A-Wish, the jewelry store, do GRT's hybrid bus logos count?, ?), but also explains why so many half-wraps have started showing up. It would be interesting to know what the definition of "full" is; all windows covered 100%, or 50% of windows covered 100% with 50% cover less than 100%?

The 2018 budget indicated that the region had $1,268,000 in revenue from "Advertising, Other fees & charges" in 2017. That would include the advertising revenue from bus shelter ads (~150), bus bench ads, interior bus ads, regular exterior bus ads, transit station (Charles, etc.) ads, as well as the bus wrap ads, and whatever else is lumped in "other fees & charges" (photo ID fees?).

On the #11 this afternoon:

Somebody should graffiti in “and hated” right after “seen”

As to half-wraps, what I would like half-wrap to mean is that the windows are clear. After all, you can probably paint more than 50% of the surface of the bus and still leave the windows uncovered. I’m sure they have a more advertising-friendly, paying-rider-unfriendly definition.

[KevinL]

Used my farecard for the first time this morning!

The display on the farebox also provides useful information on tap-in - in my case, it read:

MONTHLY PASS
EXPIRES 03/31/2018