a) Misperceive transit by overestimating travel time (Fielding, 1981). b) Have a bias or prejudice that favors other modes, (Diana and Mochktarian, 2009; O’Farrell and Markham 1974; Fujii et al. 2001; Beale and Bonsall 2007) including the perception that transit is a welfare function. c) Have little access to information on how to use transit thus further perceiving it as inconvenient (Dunbar et al., 1981; Lovelock, 1973; TCRP, 2003). The Transportation Cooperative Research Program’s (TCRP) report, Enhancing the Visibility and Image of Transit in the United States and Canada, asserts that public transportation should first focus on providing unparalleled service, and then recommends creating an image of modern public transportation that is safe, efficient, clean, convenient, and easy to use. The report indicates that, “because people tend to avoid what they do not know, potential passengers must be given as much information as possible about the transit services offered” (TCRP, 2005). Thus, transit authorities should be more aggressive in overcoming conventional perceptions by attacking them head-on and promoting the user-friendly side of transit. Previous marketing efforts that aided in overcoming these perceptions include: British Railway’s Ease The Strain, Go By Train campaign; Southwest Transit’s (Eden Prairie, Minn.), U Txt We Drive campaign; APTA’s Go Green: Go Public; and the Chicago Regional Transit Authority’s (RTA) direct mail route information effort.
concerned for public safety amid new evidence suggesting texting while driving is a very real threat to driver safety. Southwest’s CEO Len Simich said of the campaign, “Originally, this campaign was to be targeted to students who ride our buses to the University of Minnesota. However, after reading the news articles about the texting while driving studies that came out this week, and learning that 53 percent of all texters are 35 or older, we decided to begin our campaign immediately and use it with all of our riders.” He continued, “while some of our riders have voiced concerns about too much mobile phone use on the bus, those who text don’t bother the other passengers.”
APTA’s Go Green, Go Public
the ad directly suggests that in fact, transit is the superior mode. Campaigns by British Railways and Southwest Transit are examples of campaigns from two different time periods that are effective in helping potential riders to see how transit can actually be more convenient.
Southwest Transit’s “U Txt. We Drive” Billboard Campaign Recognizing the New Market of Texters. Southwest Transit (SWT) began in 1986 to serve a portion of the Minneapolis/ St. Paul metropolitan region (Southwest, 2009). A 2009 campaign titled “U Txt. We Drive” appeared in billboards across the region (Metro Magazine, 2009).
British Railways’ Ease The Strain — Go By Train Successful Competition with the Car For a 1956 advertisement campaign, British Railways created Ease the Strain—Go By Train posters that depicted travelers relaxing inside a train car while travelers who opted for auto transportation were stuck in congestion. At the time, British Railways was competing with the rise of the automobile and seeing heavy decrease in passenger rail traffic (Department for Transport, 2007). The advertisement, though dated, is a good example of countering the perception that the private automobile is more convenient. With bumper-to-bumper traffic in the foreground, and happy, stress-free train riders as the focus,
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The message is successful in that it suggests transit is more convenient way to commute and better compliments the busy commuter lifestyle. Furthermore, the billboard ads also appeal to those
Equating Green with Public Transit The American Public Transportation Authority, a community- and agency-based public transportation organization, tasked college students from eleven schools around the country to create a print advertising campaign and a series of public service announcements that would promote the environmental benefits of transit. Working directly with transit authorities to create videos for social networking sites, radio ads, and bus and rail posters, the campaign is progressive because it deliberately uses the term “public” to equate it