Public Transit Advertising and Portland Streetcar Envy
Tags: portland, transit, transit oriented development, Vancouver
Having long envied its streetcar system from afar, I was delighted this summer to make my first visit to Portland and ride its famous streetcars. Vancouver BC, where I make my home, is often compared to Portland but its once-extensive streetcar system was scrapped in favour of trolley busses in the 1950s.
A handsome new streetcar in Portland, Oregon. Photo by author.
One thing I had not expected to see when riding Portland’s famed streetcars was the presence of advertisements in non-traditional places. Tourist information booklets displayed inside each streetcar present maps of the route and promote businesses located near the tracks.
As a transit planning nerd, I actually felt warmly towards the businesses that spent advertising money in support of the streetcar system. At least, this was my excuse for making use of the tourist information booklet to locate an local microbrewery to visit.
The "Guide to Portland Streetcar and Restaurants" offers a map as well as advertisements. Photo by author.
Individual transit stops are available for sponsorship as well, a particularly controversial approach to transit advertising that appears to be gaining in popularity. As Jarrett Walker notes on his blog Human Transit, “the purpose of station names is to tell us where we are.”
In some cases, sponsorship of transit stops can obscure navigation for visitors: a hapless tourist exiting a train at Giant Corporation Station might be excused for being disoriented. That said, none of the transit ads I encountered in Portland hindered my navigation of the city as a hapless tourist. Plenty of wayfinding information was available.
Portland Streetcar stops are available for sponsorship. Photo by author.
Transit stations and vehicles are not exactly public spaces, but neither are they private. Therefore, when it comes to advertising on public transit, it is not obvious where the lines should be drawn.
What do you think – If non-traditional or controversial types of advertising like the sponsorship of transit stops or branded tourist information booklets help to pay for high-quality transit service, are trade-offs to riders’ privacy, navigation or ridership experience worthwhile?
