There are two widely understood characteristics of successful transit:  it must be necessary and it must be good.  But successful transit systems are three-legged stools and the less well-known third leg is that transit must be well marketed.  A great service that the public does not know about is destined to fail and in this regard transit is like any other product or service.

Marketing transit, however, does not necessarily entail printing brochures or making advertising buys with newspapers or radio stations because transit systems have their own built in resources, names they agency’s own vehicles, self-referential roaming billboards that can promote transit by simply following a fixed route or making demand response pick-ups.   Street-side infrastructures like shelters, benches, and stop signs are also an asset to promote the transit brand.

Volumes have been written on transit marketing (TCRP Report 50: A Handbook of Proven Marketing Strategies for Public Transit (1999) is among the best of them) but there are three essentials to marketing transit to the community.

 Internally Consistent

Transit properties provide a variety of services under the rubric of public transportation, including fixed-route and demand-response services, limited and express routes, campus routes, and late-night or airport shuttles among others.  In labeling (i.e. branding) each of these services it can be tempting to play with fonts and make a new design for every type of service, perhaps even with the idea of making each service “unique.”  But in doing so the transit property dilutes the overall brand, or at least fails to encourage the public’s broader knowledge of the product.  Here is an example from my agency, StarMetro in Tallahassee, Florida.  In the first column we see the wide variety of products and services offered, each with its own look.  On the right the service brands are consistent with one another; notice the colors, font, and use of the star and swoosh are consistent.

Externally Unified

Once selected the design standard for the transit agency should be incorporated uniformly throughout the system so that every stop, shelter, bench, bike rack, fare card, transfer slip, brochure, vehicle (including staff cars), letter, and employee uniform will present the logo to the community.   RTC in Reno, NV, is a terrific example of a unified transit message.  The agency rebranded itself five years ago and in the process changed all of its bus stop signs, the paint schemes on both fixed-route and demand response vehicles, fare media, stationary, and even the carcard template inside the bus so every place the public saw the RTC brand it was reinforced.  Some transit properties have rebranded all buses except the ones with only a few years of service time left but this leaves vehicles on the street that not only don’t reinforce the new brand but also remind the public of the old one.  In that case, what was the point of rebranding?  Reno wrapped its 10-year old RTS series buses and they looked as good as the new Gilligs (shown below) and reflected the brand.

 Readily Recognizable

RTC Reno did something else well: they chose an easy-to-read, bold, sans serif font for the RTC Ride logo, either part of which could stand alone.  More often than not transit users and non-users in the general public will see the name/logo of the transit agency on a bus stop sign or a transit vehicle and in most cases the logo, the viewer, or both will be in motion.  It is imperative, therefore, that the brand be identifiable from a distance.  To illustrate, step ten feet away from the screen and look at the six images below then try to identify them. 

Boston’s T, Central Florida’s Lynx paw, and Toronto’s GO (top row) can be seen from far away.  Mississauga, Cecil, and Brampton Transit, with their thin text spelling out relatively long names, are lost at nearly any distance.

Of course, all the marketing in the world will not make a transit system that does not block and tackle (on-time performance, customer service) well popular and well used.  But following these three principals will go a long way in cementing your transit brand in the public’s mind.