Name That Bus Route: SKIRT Takes the Shirt

4:01 PM EDT on October 17, 2008

There weren't a lot of entries, but what contestants in Streetfilms' first-ever t-shirt contest lacked in quantity, they made up for in pithiness.

Inspired by the Boulder, Colorado transit system, Clarence Eckerson challenged the Streetfilms audience to come up with zingy names for New York bus routes. He writes:

For sheer ferociousness, I really loved Susan Donovan's JUGGERNAUT. It made me want to ride that bus and become all powerful. Rex's dig at Speaker Silver's SHELLY was particularly inventive; as for CjStephens calling the M15 BREATHLESS, I could feel the air literally escaping my lungs.
But in the end as our winner, I am going with galfromdownunder's SKIRT -- as a bus that would run in the Garment District. Something about that felt so right when I read it - entertaining, descriptive, playful and very much fit the mold with the way Boulder names its themed-buses. Congrats to Lynette Chang who is behind the galfromdownunder moniker.

We agree with Clarence on the overall quality of entries, but we were especially impressed with Rex, who not only gave us The Shelly ("The silver buses on this route are instantly recognizable since the
buses do not have any doors, they only provide the illusion of service."), but also The Brodsky ("These 1950's style buses only operate in reverse."), The Wiener ("These buses make a tremendous amount of noise and smoke, but don't actually move."), and The Bloomberg ("Buses on this route can move very quickly, but they
have no fixed route and you cannot find out where they are going until
you get there."). Priceless.

Looking forward to the next contest, Clarence.

Brad Aaron

Brad Aaron began writing for Streetsblog in 2007, after years as a reporter, editor, and publisher in the alternative weekly business. Brad adopted New York's dysfunctional traffic justice system as his primary beat for Streetsblog. He lives in Manhattan.

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