Care to ride a bus shaped like a fish? Sample a new sofa on a rapid-transit train? See locally produced artworks? MARTA's marketing consultant says you might. But the system's riders just want on-time arrivals.
"Leather couches in a furniture-store sponsored train car. Free rides on MLK Jr. Day â€" 'Free at last,' get it? Bicycle carts delivering 'traffic jam' and toast to drivers stuck in gridlock, courtesy of MARTA. Pictures of reindeer plastered on trains during the Christmas season. These strange but true ideas are straight from the mind of Atlanta pitchman extraordinaire Joey Reiman and his team at BrightHouse."
"MARTA hired Reiman's company to help the transit system overhaul its public image. BrightHouse's report, issued last week, challenges MARTA's leaders to totally rethink what they do."
"It's not clear how many ideas will ever get off the drawing board. Even those deemed feasible could prove expensive to introduce, a problem for a transit system that slashed bus and rail service in recent years to balance its budget."
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also weighs in on the issue with an editorial.
FULL STORY: If MARTA looked like this, would you ride it?
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This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
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New York City School Construction Authority
Village of Glen Ellyn
Central Transportation Planning Staff/Boston Region MPO
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions