Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
Streetsblog

Stand Clear of the Doors — It’s Time for a Big Mac!

How much exposure to advertising should fare-paying transit users be expected to tolerate? Is a relatively minor fiscal benefit worth slapping ads on every bus, bus stop, subway platform and train car? Where does it end?

false

These questions are on the mind of Ben Kabak at Second Avenue Sagas, in light of an Atlantic Cities report on the latest thing in transit ads. In a small number of systems in the U.S., Kabak says, advertisers are testing the airwaves with audio commercials targeted at bus riders. Writes Kabak:

Audio ads in transit systems are part of a natural progression as transit agencies seek to squeeze every dollar out of every possible outlet. These ads too aren’t just stock spots. The company selling them has implemented a GPS-based technology that allows ads targeted to specific routes and destinations to play as buses near those locales. Currently, riders in 11 metro areas -- but not, obviously, New York -- are subject to these ads, but some transit agencies are hesitant to embrace them for fear of irking riders.

"Riders can always wear headphones," writes Atlantic Cities' Eric Jaffe, "and audio campaigns might even prompt transit agencies to fix their habitually busted speaker systems."

Kabak is not as sanguine. For a system like that of Champaign, Illinois, he writes, "Money from audio ads won’t avert any sort of fare hike should one be necessary. Play enough audio messages, though, and riders feel harassed by them."

Elsewhere on the Network today: Green Lane Project Blog has compiled a field guide to North American bike lanes. Transit Miami finds debris from a car crash littering a Biscayne Boulevard sidewalk nearly two weeks later. And Bike Portland talks to Elly Blue about her new book, "Bikenomics."

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

More Tantrums: City Halts 34th Street Busway After Threat from Trump DOT

The feds threatened to cut city and state funding if New York doesn't halt all work on the 34th Street busway so the FHWA can review the project.

October 17, 2025

READY, AIM, ‘MISFIRE’: NYPD’s Bike Speed-Limit Effort Only Adds Confusion in Central Park

Two slowly ambling pedestrians were clocked at 19 miles per hour. So what's the point of this, exactly?

October 17, 2025

Friday Video: Drool Over This London School Street

That's cricket! Check out how London transformed a roadway around a big stadium into a play street.

October 17, 2025

Friday’s Headlines: Queen James Edition

State Attorney General Letitia James gave our national security desk reporters Dave Colon and David Meyer the ultimate hat tip. Plus other news.

October 17, 2025

Judge Orders Trump to Restore $34M in Security Funding to MTA

DHS overstepped its authority when it attempted to tie money from the Transit Security Grant Program to the Trump administration's efforts to deport immigrants, Judge Lewis Kaplan said.

October 16, 2025
See all posts