October 11, 2007
New Bus Shelters Rolling Out
We told you long ago, in 2005 that is, that the District planned to roll out 788 new bus shelters as part of a $150 million deal with Clear Channel Outdoor.
The shelters are finally starting to slowly creep across the city. On 8th Street between Capitol Hill proper and H Street NE, at least four shelters have been ripped out and are in the process of being replaced with the fancy new digs. They are part of the first 21 shelters that have gone in, Erik Linden, DDOT spokesperson, said.
The shelters are very spiffy looking, and that's awesome. But we wonder whether the District plans to spend the needed money to keep them that way. History has shown that the shelters can be home to rodents, trash and worse. Will the District maintain this investment?
Photo by Amy Doolittle
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Well since it's not up to DC to maintain them I'm sure they'll be just fine. Clear Channel is responsible for maintenance. They also maintain those blue wayward signs throughout the city.
http://www.adshel.clearchannel.com/
Is that the same glass that constantly shatters at the Pentagon Bus Station?
Those benches look a little chintzy. They should make them a bit longer; it looks like not even three people could sit on it with comfort.
Looks nice, but how long until the promised bus arrival information systems are installed and online? Now that Metro is planning on taking the NextBus system out of service for 18 months, I bet it will be a long, long time before they are up and running.
That bus shelter is nicer than my apartment!!!!
Where did they pick those up, Ikea? At least move us up to Pottery Barn or something...
The sign says H Street, and it looks kinda like the one near the bank in Northeast.
And the guy looks like he's about to say, "Girlfriend, you best not be takin pictures of me again, else I'm gonna knock yer ass OUT."
I see that they didn't install benches with armrests every two feet that prevent folks from sleeping in them.....
Guest 8:
You can see a raised bump on the bench by the guy's knee. Of course it's not so large that a few layers of padding won't do the trick!
Those bus shelters look a little too ...European.
Next thing you know, we'll have a affordable, high-quality intercity train system and people won't be forced to drive everywhere.
Unfortunately, a bit of a wasted opportunity. Why not have the design of the shelters reflect the route or the location? It could have been a great placemaking/waymaking exercise. Now, it's just an exercise in cheap advertising.
The other trade-off that's not being mentioned here is that the reason Clear Channel likes this deal is that they get to plaster the city with advertising.
We're surrendering even more of the public realm to a bland corporate giant so we can be force-fed advertising. Outdoor advertising is the last place that consumers can't turn off or skip over corporate sales pitches.
Sounds fine to me guest 12 as long as I don't get wet waiting for the 54 bus.
Look for all these to be covered in graphitti and gang tags reading "Borf", "Inca", "TA", "MS-13" and all sorts of other fun stuff withing a week of them going up.
I am truly amazed how quickly the Fenty Administration has lived up to its campaign commitment to provide affordable housing.
Look out Bums you got a new place to sleep and piss in!!!
Why do you say bus shelters home to "rodents" and "trash"? Wouldn't it nearby garbage cans that would attract that? You can hardly blame the bus shelter itself.
"I saw it first, bitch!" said a local homeless crackhead.
Bus shelters in the Metro area are already plastered with ads, so this won't amount to a net increase in public advertising, or at least not one that wouldn't also occur if the city was footing the entire bill. At least with Clear Channel in control we can be reasonably sure that the ads will be reasonably current, and regularly updated. Metro is really aggressive and on the ball about selling the ads that plaster the insides of the subway stations, but there are bus shelters in Montgomery County that are almost always advertising movies that closed three to six months ago . . .
The annoying ads are those new bluetooth ones that try to send stuff to your phone when you walk by certain bus stops! There was a Pepsi one a few months ago, and now there's an Ikea one.