Waiting for the Bus is About to get TOTALLY RAD

We have incredibly exciting news about bus shelters! The city just reached an agreement with Clear Channel, your favorite company, to provide bus shelters and advertising and revenue. It's a complicated relationship, and totally boring -- like, alt-weekly-level boring -- but here's what it all means to you, the common man on the street:

- New shelters will speak NextMuni information out loud, will have a beacon for waiting passengers to notify approaching vehicles, will contain recycled and sustainable materials, will be solar-powered, and are supposedly graffiti-resistant, which we'll believe when we see.

- 3,000 bus poles with solar-powered signs will be installed at transit stops where there are no shelters within seven years from the date the designs are approved.

- At Muni's request, Clear Channel is required to provide a self-sustaining Bicycle-Sharing Program. It can be provided by a different vendor if Clear Channel can't get it going.

- Clear Channel may install an additional 400 shelters and 111 kiosks.

- Clear Channel will pay $5,000,000 up front, then annual payments of $500,000 in admin fees, $200,000 in marketing fees, and $265,000 for the Arts Commission. Revenue sharing will be 55% for the first 15 years.

So ... whaddya think about that bike-sharing dealio?