by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
The differences of opinion dividing the Jacksonville Transportation Authority and advocates of signage control including some members of City Council and Downtown Vision, Inc. look much like an MP3 playlist.
JTA: “Gimme Shelter.”
CC, DVI, et al: “Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs.”
JTA would like to allow an advertising company to install and maintain bus shelters along routes. Part of the current campaign to increase ridership is based on getting more of what JTA calls “choice riders” to leave their cars at home and use public transportation instead.
“We believe that in order to attract more riders, we have to make the mass transit experience more comfortable. Having more shelters at stops to protect people waiting for a bus from the elements would help us accomplish that,” said JTA spokesman Mike Miller.
While most bus stops do not offer any amenities beyond a small sign bolted to a pole by the side of the road, there are currently 400 bus shelters in place at stops with higher-than-average ridership. Miller said in addition to the initial investment to install a shelter, it costs more than $900 per year to maintain each one in terms of “keeping it clean and presentable, not including repair.”
That’s an expense JTA can’t absorb, even with the fare increases that will go into effect Oct. 1.
Miller also said JTA would like to add 50 shelters each year “for the foreseeable future.”
District 5 Council member Art Shad introduced an ordinance to allow advertising on bus shelters in 2005 and it has since been languishing in committees. Shad said with a new Council, he thinks it’s time to get it back at the top of the agenda. He also doesn’t believe the City, the advocates for finding a non-cost-encumbered way to have more bus shelters and the advocates for having less visual pollution are at cross purposes in the final analysis.
“Their goal is to sell ads. Our goal is to provide shelter. Ultimately those goals overlap,” said Shad.
Bill Bishop, Dist, 2 Council member, is one of the most vocal opponents of the ordinance. He said he supports making mass transit more appealing to more riders, but he doesn’t believe turning control of them over to an advertising company is the best way to achieve the end result.
“I love bus shelters. I just don’t like the idea of selling advertising on them. I think it would be a step backward.
“Too many people have spent too many years working to eliminate visual clutter.”
Bishop also questions how decisions will be made in terms of where to install new shelters.
“As I understand it that will be left up to the advertising company. They’ll put them where it will make them the most money. I haven’t seen a plan to run it in a responsible manner. I’d like to see some criteria.”
Miller said an agreement with an advertising company could either be for new shelters only or it could also include the existing shelters, “If those locations would prove financially beneficial to the company.”
Bishop would like to explore the concept of a public-private partnership for sponsoring bus shelters similar to the “Adopt-a-Road” program already in place.
“I think there’s a good chance there’s enough altruism out there to make something like that work,” he said.
Shad agreed a program like that might work in part but he doesn’t believe it could address the entire issue.
“Finding someone who would donate to have them constructed would be great, but you still have to be able to keep them clean. Having someone who would be responsible for the maintenance is more valuable,” he said.
Shad also said he is not in favor of adding more criteria to the proposed legislation beyond a simple zoning exception because, “There are already many exemptions to the sign ordinance. Look at the Sports Complex and we already have bus benches with ads on them. One more (exception) won’t hurt,” he said.
There are currently 22 bus shelters Downtown. At the Aug 28 City Council meeting, Terry Lorince, executive director of DVI, described the shelters as “prime locations for graffiti, litter, public urination, drinking and loitering issues.”
She also said DVI is concerned about the design and placement of any new shelters and requested that the Downtown Design Review Board and the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission should participate in approving any new installations.
“We would be happy to work with the JEDC and JTA to resolve these issues,” added Lorince.
The next public hearing on the bus shelter advertising special exemption ordinance is on the agenda for the Oct. 2 meeting of the Land Use and Zoning Committee.