Bench owners use a public resource (side walk, right-of-way or whatever), and harvest an income for advertising. If I were in charge I would not outlaw it, but rather license each bench and harvest a little income to be dedicated to Valley Ride.

C. George, do you speak for ACHD or Valley ride?

Back in the 70s, advertising benches, better known to the public as bus benches, were under contract to Boise City – not ACHD. The part about building (the original wood) bus shelters at BSU Towers and the Administration Building with federal grants is correct. Our Federal (transit) tax dollars even funded part of rebuilding downtown streets back in the late 80s. Got to love in-kind match.

Scam? Depends on your viewpoint. Back in the 70s the contractor paid a part of their revenue (I can’t recall the percentage) to the city owned bus system then known as Boise Urban Stages or BUS. The contractor was responsible for placement (under BUS approval) and maintenance of the benches. There were probably 200 to 300 benches citywide not the 700 or so out there today. Total annual revenue to BUS was relatively small. Less than $10,000 if I remember correctly. Back in those days BUS was a growing transit system carrying more than 1,000,000 fare paying passengers a year.

Some of the same advertising bench issues existed then as now. Advertising or not? Benches placed on the wrong corner, benches faced for their advertising exposure value not rider convenience, not removed as quickly as we would have liked when bus routes changed, and of course benches placed at places were the bus didn’t run. At least there was some revenue coming into the bus system though. The question was even raised whether advertising on buses made them mobile billboards – something banned by the City (the City decided they were not mobile billboards).

It appears that Valley Ride (is that their name this week?) may have dropped the ball on the advertising benches. Perhaps the advertising benches got overlooked when they decided to take over the exterior bus advertising from an experienced, but out of town, transit advertising contractor. Or did the City overlook the advertising bench contract in its hurry to wring its hands of BUS and dump it on Valley Ride. Surprise, surprise. What happened to the contract – and its revenue? Maybe the local paper or another local media outlet (Channel 2 you reading this?) needs to ask that question.

As I understand it, ACHD uses its “licensing” to only to track items on public right of way not to regulate them. Anyone know differently?

Yes, national firms will come into cities for the transit advertising dollars. But the cities must be either big enough population wise, or have sufficient ridership, to attract the firms. Nationally, transit advertising (on and in vehicles, stations, and shelters) is big business and a nice source of revenue to transit systems. I would respectfully suggest that the Valley is no where near that level yet just as it is no where near the level of being able to support a light rail system.

And Slim Jim, while you still can, show up at most any corner where a bus passes (maybe signed, maybe not) and flag it down (i.e., wave your arm(s)) at the bus to (hopefully) get it to stop. It’s a “flag stop” system. The term comes from the passenger, and interurban, railroad days. Once the designated stop system goes into effect, you’ll probably be walking a lot further to a stop – but at least you’ll know where it is. Apparently Valley Ride, and their planning contractors, have forgotten the quarter mile service coverage concept and, more importantly, customer service.

And yes Guardian, I agree with you “… the advertising benches seemed to have just blossomed through the cracks like weeds.”