Downtown Bus Shelter Designs Revealed

[toi]

Speaking of which, can the regular buses even accommodate people in wheelchairs?  I thought that JTA had separate vehicles to provide transport to people in wheelchairs door-to-door, in which case, it wouldn't make a lot of sense to have every bus shelter providing space for a wheelchair.

[tufsu1]

most JTA buses have wheelchair-equipped rear doors...as for the shelter, the bench accomodates 3 people sitting...and when there isn't a hadicapped person, the wheelchair space provides more standing room.

[TheProfessor]

The busses have to be able to accomodate wheelchairs.

[stjr]

As it is designed, I can only see one or maybe two unrelated people sitting under the shelter at any one time.

I am sure JTA can fix this by.... selling more ads!  Just ask them.  

[CS Foltz]

Is this after they contact the opposition or before stjr?

[tufsu1]

yawn

[thelakelander]

• Joanna Diz, project manager for the Jacksonville Transportation Authority’s bus shelter project, reported that the first shipment of the new bus shelters is scheduled to arrive in July. The bus shelters will be installed at seven Downtown locations, replacing existing shelters. The old shelters will be relocated to other bus stops in the suburbs, she said.

http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=531335

[stjr]

^New bus shelters with no ads?  Amazing!

[tufsu1]

^New bus shelters with no ads?  Amazing!

don't worry...they are designed to accomodate ads at a later date 

[BOfficer]

hoping they go with option 1....everything needed to bring Jacksonville out of the 90's

[tufsu1]

I believe they decided on Option 3

[TheProfessor]

Below is a response from Mike Miller concerning the new bus shelters.  Apparently the first ONE is going in this week.  At least some progress

Wendy Morrow forwarded your email to me for response. There were actually two RFP’s sent out relating to JTA’s shelter program. The single bidder you referenced was in response to our shelter advertising program. In that RFP we were soliciting responses from companies interested in a program that would cover the capital and maintenance costs of a minimum of 50 shelters per year over an extended period of time. The winning company would build and maintain the shelters and be authorized to sell ads on the shelters, using a substantial percentage of the advertising proceeds to offset their costs. We were informed by the companies we sent RFP’s to that the economy was preventing them from participating at this time.

The second RFP was directed to companies who manufacture shelters. JTA is seeking a particular “look” for historic shelters for downtown, a separate style for shelters in high frequency corridors and a third design for our BRT shelters. We received four responses and short listed three of the four. We are currently working with all three of the short listed companies. We have ordered seven of approximately 24 historic shelters for the downtown from one of the three companies. In fact, we are scheduled to install the first of seven shelters we’ve received by the end of the week. 

JTA is committed to adding new shelters to our system. We are also committed to installing upgraded shelters with state-of-the-art passenger amenities to make the transit experience as convenient and pleasant as we can make it. At this point, JTA is using available funding to order and install the new upgraded shelters. We continue to plan on addressing the advertising program to offset the expensive maintenance costs of the shelters.

Thank you for both your interest and support of our program. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.   

Mike Miller
Director, External Affairs
JTA
904.630.3109
mmiller@jtafla.com

[CS Foltz]

I just don't understand why it has taken soooooooo long to do this? I don't get why "Historic Shelters" need to be downtown and it is nice that the existing shelters will be moved to where needed? Only leaves maybe 2k plus that have no shelter at all! Better something than nothing! I wonder just where this new one will be going in at?

[TheProfessor]

I really think they need to send out more requests for proposals.  I see new bus shelters going up in other cites with advertising despite the economy.  I don't know why downtown needs historic bus shelters either.  I am guessing these will not have advertising on them.

[stjr]

I see new bus shelters going up in other cites with advertising despite the economy.

Professor, the ad revenue depends on the traffic that could reasonably view the shelters. With our low mass transit usage and pedestrian counts, I figure we don't have what it takes to generate sufficient ad revenue.  Cars driving by at 40+ mph aren't going to excite advertisers.  They should just as well buy the sign on the side of a bus or a billboard or on a taxi top.  Don't forget, many bus stops are on less traveled streets or in less than fully conspicuous locations.  These stops may generate little or no revenue at all and have to be averaged with the more visible stops.

This is a "free market" project, and I have always suspected that it would have economic issues generating the significant $$$ JTA was banking on cover both "capital and maintenance" expenditures.  There is lots of competition for ad dollars and, likely, more cost effective options in most cases for advertisers than what JTA requires to make its program work.

The  proof is in the pudding.  No qualified bidders.