September 4, 2008
Gavin Ready to Unveil Those New Muni Shelters he's Been Working on
Today at 11:45, Gavin's holding a press conference to show off what's being called a "green bus shelter." Neato! What do you think it'll be? Will it be a wretched hexagon, or a lgit sketch, or a tiny pottery barn? Let's look back in time and see what Muni promised us a year ago.
Remember October of 2007? The city was atwitter with bus shelter mania as Muni reached an agreement with Clear Channel to provide brand new shelters featuring the following:
- 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.
- Shelters will speak NextMuni information out loud, will have a beacon for waiting passengers to attract approaching vehicles, will contain recycled and sustainable materials, will be solar-powered, and will be "graffiti-resistant," whatever the hell that means.
- 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? It's 11 months later, and Gavin's just now getting around to showing us something "green." Is this the new shelter we've been waiting for, or a useless flash-in-the-pan gimmick like the connected bus? Will it be as awesome as they predicted last fall? We'll be glued to CNN all day, waiting for details.
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i feel so bad for the people who live next to a bus shelter and will have to hear over and over again the nextbus commentary at ungodly hours of the morning.
they're putting a "green roof" on the muni shelter in front of the Asian Art Museum.....
Let's be honest, this is all just window dressing bullshit so Clear Channel can rake in advertising bucks from Gap and the Israeli tourism commission.
Agree with jacksevanroo, but the other useful function is that this is another go-nowhere gimmick like the Connected bus that Gavin can point to in the governor's race to show how "green" he is.
What do you think it'll be?
Vandalized within a week of it being finished.
Some of the current shelters have a button you can push to hear the announcements, so the announcements don't go on all day and night if nobody's there.
I just hope the NextBus info is HUGE. Like, visible from Marin. The current screens are way too small.
AJ,
The current LED NextBus signs will be swapped into the new shelters, which are designed to fit the current signs. I asked the same thing since they started installing them throughout the city right after the new deal was signed. At least they aren't going to waste and the new shelter design should make it a little easier to read them without being right underneath them, but they still aren't legible unless you're right there.
ok, but let's make MUNI more functional & reliable...which in the long term would be way more green. these shelters seem like another way to uphold our (or Gavin's) "green" reputation. fix the system too, please!