Jacksonville bus shelters delayed by lack of interest

[thelakelander]

By Larry Hannan

The Jacksonville Transportation Authority’s efforts to construct bus shelters with advertisements was dealt another blow Monday when the only company to bid for the contract was rejected.

Streetscape Media Inc., a Fleming Island company, was rejected by JTA officials because they weren’t certain the company could do the job. The firm formed last year and has never built a bus shelter.

JTA spokesman Mike Miller  said there was concern over the companies lack of experience and uncertainty over whether the company had the capital to build and maintain the shelters.

The transportation agency may wait for the economy to improve before seeking another vendor. It also may look into building the shelters itself and selling advertisements in-house, Miller said.

Full article: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-06-14/story/jacksonville-bus-shelters-delayed-lack-interest

[SightseerLounge]

Now, if the JTA would just finish building the other sidewalk on Blanding Blvd. (North between Collins and Morse)
they would be good.

I'll give them credit, they did build a sidewalk going south with bus shelters, but they need to finish.

The only problem with the bus shelters is in locations with buildings close to the street. (Park & King, Blanding and San Juan) The shelters would block the businesses.

There need to be more "big" bus shelters like the one on Phillips Hwy. at Walmart. (going south)

If they would just put a glass in the middle it would protect from the rain.

I don't know about 99 degree heat!

[Ocklawaha]

In my world, when I'm elected dictator of JTA, bus stop audits will be conducted on a regular ongoing basis. ANY bus stop that reaches a certain plateau of passenger usage would go to a large model station, with AC/HEAT/WIFI/NEWSTAND/JTA HOTLINE PHONE/SEATING/LEASE SPACE FOR FOOD-DRINK VENDING MACHINES/TRANSIT PASS MACHINE (remember NO FARE collection on buses when I take over).

The upgraded stations would also apply where JTA interlines with another carrier such as the St. Johns County "SUNSHINE BUS SYSTEM" that interchanges at the Avenues and/or Ponte Vedra. hee hee.

BTW, no turnstiles either!! Have these folks have never heard of optics? scanners?

Q. If you owned a convenience store and you could make $1.00 or more on every weekly-monthly-yearly trip pass you sold, would ridership increase in your area? What if you owned 20 stores? What if you made .25 cents on EVERY single trip pass you sold?  What if this was available to any business, club, residential community, group fund raisers?  

OCKLAWAHA

[CS Foltz]

Gee Ock! Tickets selling like your saying might even take the place of "Advertising"? JTA , like usual, has managed to drop the ball just one more time! This is getting to be a habit with  them or maybe just business as usual............where is their Plan B? So they went to all of the trouble to get the Sign Amendment changed to suit them, one company bid, they did not get the bid and now we are back to square one again! So-called transportation professionals and this is the best that they can do? I have an idea, lets fire all of the upper management right now and start over! I have a dollar to wager, that none of the JTA Command personnel has ever rode any bus..............are there any takers?

[stjr]

Can I say "I told you so!"?  Go back and read the bus shelter ad posts by myself and some of the JTA lackeys that lurk here and see who predicted this outcome.

JTA did this all wrong.  Total lack of up front homework and due diligence.  I questioned from the beginning whether this was a viable business model and I don't even work for JTA.  It's called common sense.  Mass transit experience be damned.  They had no firm numbers on costs, never showed what the business plan was supposed to be (i.e. anticipated revenue streams vs. expected costs), no clear definition of who was doing what, picking the shelter design without consulting with the ad company bidders, vagueness on which shelters would be built where and how ads would be sold at low traffic stops, etc.  Add the conflicts of interests, lack of transparency, and deliberate dissemination of misleading numbers to get approval and this is what you get: Another JTA fiasco.

Look, bus shelters should be as integral to running the bus system as buying a bus.  Budget for them and provide them in the same manner.  Any ad revenue is gravy but it is not going to pay for the core of a transit system.  No more than the lottery pays for education. JTA isn't doing their job right and the ad controversy was a side show to distract from that.  

[JeffreyS]

Ok I'll take my medicine.

[duvaldude08]

I knew this was going to happen. Another great move. Keep up the good work city of Jacksonville LMAO
How suprising that JTA received ALL that stimulous money and they are going to  "wait until the economy improves"  before choosing another vendor. This city is really joke. So to all bus rider, shelters coming anytime soon. So get used to standing up in the sun or sitting down on a bench that falling apart.

I truely feel sorry for bus riders. Its bad enought they have no car, but that have to suffer in all heat.

[duvaldude08]

The Landing is getting parking and the Tiro is getting revived. I guess we cant have everything our way.Atleast something is going in the right direction for a change.

[jbroadglide]

I knew this was going to happen. Another great move. Keep up the good work city of Jacksonville LMAO

I could be wrong on this but isn't JTA a State agency. Funded by the state. So the city of Jacksonville would have very little involvement in how the JTA operates and does business, would it not?

[Captain Zissou]

What would be the process for dismantling  JTA?

[duvaldude08]

I knew this was going to happen. Another great move. Keep up the good work city of Jacksonville LMAO

I could be wrong on this but isn't JTA a State agency. Funded by the state. So the city of Jacksonville would have very little involvement in how the JTA operates and does business, would it not?

You know honestly I have a clue, but they need to get their act together. Things that happen in the city PERIOD are a utter mess, whether its a state agency or not.

[TheProfessor]

I don't see how JTA had those 3 bus shelter rendering options if a supplier/installer had not already been chosen?  I'm sure there is a hungry supplier in this market.  Atlanta is putting in new bus shelters all over the city, maybe JTA should find out who is supplying those.

[thelakelander]

From the article:

Streetscape Media CEO William Fritz expressed surprise when informed by the Times-Union on Monday that his bid had been rejected.

"I can understand their concern about our lack of experience," he said. "But I'm very disappointed because this was something we wanted to do."

The company had hoped to build the shelters and use that as a springboard to doing work in other cities, Fritz said. He said the company had sufficient financial resources.

How hard is it to build and maintain a bus shelter?  After all, it's not a nuclear power plant.  Why not give the local guy a chance and building and maintaining a limited number of shelters to see how it goes.  Even that is better than people roasting in the sun until the economy improves in a couple of years.

[TheProfessor]

Here is an article on the the new Atlanta Bus Shelters.  It looks like this is from Jan 2008 and they are just installing them now.  I guess they take as long there as in Jax to push things through.

http://notify.itsmarta.com/legacy/newsletter/2008/january.html

[Keith-N-Jax]

JTA = COJ = JEA theres really no difference. lol round that to the nearest number and u get Jacksonville.