The talking bus, which uses global positioning to tell passengers which street they're passing and which stop will be next, has reached maturity: It's becoming an advertising medium too.
With the recent blessing of the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority's trustees, a Chicago firm soon will solicit audio advertising for Toledo's bus system.
The buses' global positioning systems will trigger "brief announcements" on the buses' interior public address systems when the vehicle passes an advertiser, James Gee, the transit authority's general manager, said. The ads might advise riders that a particular coffee shop is offering a special that day to TARTA passengers, he said.
"It's an innovative, relatively new form of advertising," said Stacy Clink, the transit authority's controller. The talking-ad system already is in use in Champaign,
Ill., and Dayton, she said.
Mr. Gee said Commuter Advertising Inc. will market the service to potential advertisers and manage the accounts.TARTA is to receive 30 percent of revenue from the audio ads during the first two years, and 35 percent after that. No revenue estimate was available.
Francis Frey, Maumee's delegate to the transit board, said he appreciated the additional revenue, but was concerned that the advertising might interfere with the basic information riders are supposed to receive.
Mr. Gee and Ms. Clink assured him that bus announcements would override advertising as needed.
The ad system "will announce the name of the business and give a brief commercial message," Mr. Gee said. Transit authority staff will program the advertising messages into the audio system, he said. Ads will only be heard on GPS-equipped buses.
James Bohn, the transit trustees' chairman, said that assurance was all he needed to support the concept - particularly in light of TARTA's seemingly never-ending financial struggle.
"It's a source of revenue. If you can get a few dollars out of it, that's what you've got to look at," he said.
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