1.7 min readBy Published On: January 17th, 2017Categories: News2 Comments on Who wants cool buses?

We’ve all seen the giant lines and crowds of people at the bus stops in Southie.  No one looks happy.  The MBTA is unreliable, has lousy service and it seems like there is no rush to improve anything.  Well, one group of advocates are pushing for a bus makeover in the hopes for the bus to “be cool.”

According to an article in The Boston Globe,  Stacy Thompson from the Livable Streets Alliance thinks that buses “should be fun.”  This same advocacy group also had an initiative in the fall called “Making Buses Sexy.”  What?  Soon a new campaign will be in the works called “Beauty and the Bus” encouraging people to share photos from buses on social media.  What?  All those photos would consist of miserable people jammed to maximum capacity on the #7, sweating their asses off because the heat is jacked all the way up.  #BeautyandtheBus 

The hope behind these campaigns is with a new image for the bus, it could broaden ridership and press the MBTA to make changes.  Uhhmmmm…we don’t need more riders in Southie – we need more sexy buses running and better service and the MBTA is never going to make changes just because #Beautyandthebus is trending.

To be fair, most of the work the transit advocates do is focused on is trying to improve service.  The big push is “bus rapid transit” with bus-only lanes and a faster fare collection system.  The fun light-hearted campaigns are just a way to shed light on a very dismal issue – an issue that thousands of South Boston residents face every single day.

We have our fingers crossed that these advocacy groups will make some headway with the MBTA but we have a feeling we’ll be waiting a long time.

In the meantime, CIS will be pushing its own social media campaign.  Send us your photos on social media with the #SouthieBusLife – let’s show them how, sexy, fun, and cool taking the bus really is. 

2 Comments

  1. Scott January 18, 2017 at 7:38 pm - Reply

    Could we just have the #7 run on Sunday’s? It could be “sexy’ or “cool”, as long as we have actual service. With all of the new construction on L near Broadway, and the increased people that brings, I don’t understand how we have 1 day a week with NO service with a direct route up Summer Street. I can’t be alone in thinking this. Someone? Anyone?

  2. Larry Legend January 19, 2017 at 12:06 am - Reply

    This article gave me a headache.

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