The MT Position

So just what is the difference between marketing and public relations? Are they the same thing?

Actually, they’re two different yet complimentary disciplines. Marketing is a process within which the practice of public relations can be a highly effective tactic. PR, as it’s more commonly referred to, most often uses methods that exclude paid advertising. It’s not surprising that as advertising costs increase and media choices multiply, many companies, including public transportation organizations, are using PR to get their messages out.

When it comes to PR there are many tactical choices such as newsletters, brochures, news releases, media events and so forth. Certainly creativity plays a role in making PR effective. But to be consistently successful requires an underlying PR philosophy I call the “5 Be’s”. Here they are for your consideration:

1. Be Principled. Honesty, accessibility, fairness and accuracy make for an ethical foundation on which to build a credible PR program. A good example of ethical principles is the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) code of ethics. PRSA members are required to subscribe to the code which you can check out at http://www.prsa.org/aboutUs/ethics/preamble_en.html. Even if you don’t belong to PRSA, these ethical guidelines should serve you well when conducting PR activities.

2. Be Focused. Focusing on the recruitment and retention of riders or on your organization’s reputation provides not just a conceptual anchor for your PR efforts, but a basis for measuring your results.

3. Be Aware of Your Audience. Just like any other marketing effort, PR programs require the discipline to identify and communicate to a target audience. Messages and activities need to be crafted to deal with those audiences. It may be a simple as geographically “zoning” a news release for service changes, or as complex as creating advocacy communications pieces for multiple audiences.

4. Be Integrated. Your PR efforts should always be consistent with the messages used in your ads, internal newsletters, and other points of contact you have with target audiences. The net result is that each marketing tactic reinforces the other making your entire communications effort much more than the sum of its parts.

5. Be The Brand. If your brand personality includes excellence, reliability, friendliness, etc., then the people who represent you in word and deed should be emulating those qualities. Branding isn’t the sole responsibility of the marketing department, but every one in every corner of your organization who comes in contact with your customers. In essence, it’s the “public” part of public relations. When choosing spokespeople, outreach specialists, customer service representatives, operators and anyone else who becomes your public face, be sure their personality matches your organization’s brand personality.

Keep the thread going by adding or modifying the above principles, or by sharing a story that relates to one or more of the “Be’s”. Let me hear from you!

Joe Caruso is Senior Consultant for Brecon Hill Consulting. He’s the former marketing director for the Milwaukee County Transit System (WI) and has over 32 years of transit marketing experience. He welcomes your comments at jcaruso@breconhill.com.

Posted by Fred Jandt
Editor, Mass Transit

I read an interesting article last week. It said, “despite soaring gas prices, close to 80 percent of motorists said they still prefer to commute by driving and will not consider taking advantage of public transportation.”

It went on to say that 22.5 percent of commuters are considering public transit — a 3.9 percent increase from two years ago. According to the story 24.3 percent of interviewees say they are too far away from stops and stations, 17 percent said it would take them longer to get to work and 14.9 percent said public transit wasn’t flexible enough for them.

Of course, half of the respondents say that if gas prices continue to climb, they will use their cars less. Of those interviewed, 32 percent said they need to search for parking spaces when they get to work and the average time lost doing this is about 7.5 minutes.

Those are some interesting numbers — especially when you consider that they are from a survey of 20,000 car owners in the Republic of China (Taiwan).

What’s interesting here is not just the similarity of the numbers to the United States, but the reasons against using transit. It’s too far away. It takes too long. I don’t want to give up the freedom of my car.

Heard any of those lately?

Now consider that in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital city, gasoline is currently going for about $2.84 a gallon (that’s in U.S. dollars). How about here in the states? I know it’s $2.84 at the gas station across the street from the Mass Transit offices. How about other places: Chicago - $2.85; New York - $2.74; Los Angeles - $3.13; Seattle - $3.01; Houston - $2.58.

So the gas prices there are about in-line with the U.S.

Now look at these gas prices (U.S. dollars): London - $5.79; Madrid - $4.55; Frankfurt - $5.57; Paris - $5.54.

It is interesting that four cities with arguably some of the best transit systems in the world also have gas prices $2 - $3 higher than in the U.S. or Taiwan where people still “love” their cars.

No wonder people are still in love with their cars — what’s the incentive to try anything else.

Thanks for reading the MT Position, updated every Friday.

Fred
fred.jandt@cygnusb2b.com

Posted by Fred Jandt
Editor, Mass Transit

APTA held its Annual Meeting last week in Charlotte and, as always, it was good to get together with everyone in the industry, see old friends and meet new ones. Thanks from this end to Ron Tober, CATS and the City of Charlotte for being such great hosts while we were there. Between Charlotte and Nashville this year as hosts for a couple of APTA’s shows, it’s starting to make me think about moving South.

Congratulations also go out to Michael Townes, APTA’s newest chairman. I am sure he will make the association proud.

You may have noticed I didn’t address the Annual Meeting in last week’s blog. That’s because even before the festivities were over in Charlotte, I was getting on a plane to head to the next leg of my journey last week — a trip to Beijing, China, to see Beijing’s recently implemented bus rapid transit (BRT) line.

I don’t know what I expected in Beijing. I am old enough to remember the events of Tian’anmen Square, so I guess the whole idea of an imperialistic communist state with soldiers everywhere is what I had in mind. Boy was I wrong!

Beijing surprised me in how Western the city was. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that while I didn’t speak the language, most if not all of the signs were printed in Chinese and English and I could find someone anywhere I went who spoke at least a little English … well, except the taxi drivers.

The BRT system was impressive with dedicated center lanes setting it off from traffic, signal priority and level boarding. It zipped past traffic so congested our “highway first” folks would be screaming bloody murder to get several new lanes put in. No wonder it was standing room only on board!

With all of its buses (20,000!), Beijing sees more need for transit and is looking to expand with several new BRT routes and more than double its subway system. What’s the most interesting about this is the timeframe they are looking at. Adding BRT routes in two years! Doubling their subway system in four years?!

I understand that, especially with the subway, this amazing timeframe goes part and parcel with the government being fully behind such an endeavor and them being able to marshal a tremendous amount of workforce to get it done. But here in the states we could get BRT systems up and running in as much time in many locations.

The problem is with the incessant dickering that goes into the creation of any sort of new or expanded transit project. Not only on a funding level, but design and implementation as well. It’s almost like transit opponents are trying to filibuster projects out of being completed like lawmakers at the capitol.

I just hope we can take a page from other agencies, nationally or internationally, who have that mentality of finding what works for them and doing it without hemming and hawing and apply it to all of our systems.

Thanks for reading the MT Position, updated every Friday.

Fred
fred.jandt@cygnusb2b.com

Posted by Leah Harnack
Associate Editor, Mass Transit

Many of us are getting back to our offices after attending APTA’s Annual Meeting in Charlotte this past week.

Early mornings, late nights, active days, different time zone, unfamiliar territory, more information than the mind can digest in a day—I am exhausted.

No different, I imagine, than many other travelers, who are, of course, some of the people you are serving everyday.

Before continuing on here, I want to make sure it is clear that none of this is meant as a criticism of CATS. Every staff member I talked to was everything an agency could hope for—very friendly, very courteous. This is a look from an outsider’s view, coming to your city and riding your system.

When my husband and I travel we rely on public transit, Amtrak and motorcoach. My Charlotte experience was similar to countless other experiences. Maybe it’s because I’m a bit cranky and unable to sleep on the plane because of the guy snoring so loudly next to me that I decided to pull out my laptop and start typing away.

My visit to Charlotte started with a 6:00 a.m. flight. After getting off the airplane I staggered through the airport and shuffled to where I thought I was supposed to go to catch the bus that would take me to my hotel. I was digging through my bag, looking for change when a man wearing a bright orange t-shirt approached me asking, “A-P-T-A?”

After getting a free bus pass and reassurance that I indeed was standing where I needed to, I learned that this overly tech-savvy gentleman, who typically works normal business hours utilizing GIS-based solutions to optimize routes and scheduling, was out early this Sunday morning at the airport searching out conference attendees to offer any assistance in making our trip downtown a little bit easier.

As anyone would assume, that’s a common scenario at conferences such as these. Countless dedicated staff out at all hours doing a variety of things that they probably never imagined would be in their job description so attendees can focus on making the most of the conference.

My trip back was a bit more of a bumpy ride.

I forgot to check where to catch the 5 from the hotel to the airport, so I asked one of the bellhops if they knew. Just as I’ve run into at countless hotels, they had shuttle buses I could take, could call me a taxi, but no, he didn’t know where I could catch the bus. OK. I understand how that goes.

I figured I would just start walking and find a stop. Came across a bus stop sign right out in front of the convention center and at the corner, waiting to turn my way, was a No. 5 bus. Timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

There weren’t any route numbers on the bus stop sign, so I guessed it was for all the buses going this way as that must be a fairly busy stop. This serves as a great reminder—never assume. No. All buses do not stop at that stop. The bus drove past.

At this time there were masses of attendees boarding countless buses for a tour. As buses were pulling away and things were quieting down, I asked a group of CATS folks that were orchestrating this organized chaos, where I have to go to catch the bus to the airport.

They were finishing up what looked like quite a feat of organization and I would imagine sorting masses of people on bus after bus, is not what they are used to doing. They were confirming this and that with the voices coming from their radios as they were trying to sort multiple pages of lists, all while answering a myriad of questions from people like myself.

I don’t know where the miscommunication or misunderstanding came from, but walking down two blocks like I understood, did not seem to get me to where I should be. The bus stop sign listed countless routes, but there was no number five anywhere on the sign.

It wasn’t until a local was commenting with a friendly smile, “you look lost,” that I realized I was just standing there staring off into space. Unknown to the world around me I was calculating, rationalizing, well, and a little pouting mixed in there. Am I reading the sign wrong? Did they tell me wrong? Did I hear them wrong? Do I wait here? How long do I wait here?

The kind man said he wasn’t sure, but he didn’t think I was in the right place. That was good enough for me to convince me I should probably make the two-block trek back down to where there were still CATS staff lingering.

For those of you there, you can attest to the fact that it was hot — unbelievably hot. In a suit and heels, pulling luggage, I staggered back to where I had been a few minutes ago.

Twice during all of this, taxis had shot a quick I’m-here-if-you-are-looking-for-a-ride honk. By this time, very, very tempting. But no. I’m always fighting with the editor of our local paper trying to convince him that even if people don’t take transit everyday, if they just commit to it 10 or 15 percent of the time, it does make a difference. I’m stubborn. So I stagger up to the spot I started where there were some different CATS folks working.

I’m assured it’s a quick, short walk to the bus transfer center and I will find it there. Down two blocks — again, take a right, another block or so and I will see it.

Sweat starting to bead on my face, the lining of my suit damp with perspiration, feet crying to get out of heels, the rickety wheels of my suitcase bouncing on a cobblestone-like sidewalk, I head out on what I hope is the last leg of my excursion.

I make it.  And now I am in this huge transit hub, rows and rows of buses — way too much to take in at this point of exhaustion.

I find a CATS employee and he points me to where I need to go. Back outside, in front of the hub.

I get outside and there’s another staff member. Feeling a bit uneasy at this point, 30 minutes from when I first left the hotel to get on a bus, I confirm with him. He reassures me I’m in the right place, showed me where I could have a seat until the bus would come and told me it would be there in only seven more minutes.

Where’s the biggest problem that created this chaos? OK, I hate to admit it, but looking back, it was me. Before leaving for Charlotte, I did the trip planner on their Web site (thank you for allowing me to enter landmarks and not have to look up exact addresses!) for my trip from the airport to the hotel.

I wasn’t sure when I would be leaving, so I never looked at a trip planner for the return trip. I just figured I would get on at the stop I got off at. Yes, now I know that I cannot do that. When I did arrive at the airport, out of curiosity I pulled up the CATS Web site and the trip planner told me to walk to the transfer center and pick up my bus there. Lesson learned.
 
Again, CATS had friendly staff and drivers, an extremely clean bus; it was a great ride, so there are no complaints about CATS, just to share the perspective of someone that could be your passenger one day.

I now know what I could have done to make my trip with transit easier. What could CATS have done to make it easier for me? What could your agency do to make it easier for me when I fly in to your nearest airport?

If we want more people to take public transportation, how can we make it more convenient? People flying in to a city don’t have a car unless they rent one. What do you do to entice the traveler to transit instead of the taxi?

Leah Harnack
leah.harnack@cygnusb2b.com

Posted by Fred Jandt
Editor, Mass Transit

Shortly after I wrote last week’s blog I read an article about how Google Transit had “graduated” from Google Labs to a full-fledged (and integrated) part of Google Maps. As is typical with most online articles, the whining and kvetching about Google commenced almost immediately.

I have by now learned to tune out the posters who go on about corporations growing too large and squashing out the little man. In this case they were comparing Google Transit (evidently the new Evil Overlord in the tech market) and HopStop.com. Comments like, “Well there goes HopStop.com” are just silly.

If you have a viable product that people want, you will succeed … or get bought out by that mega-corporation, but some people see that as the true sign of success anyway.

So I decided to do a little hands-on testing of Google Transit and HopStop.com. I wanted to see how they compared and if one was any better than the other. What I found out was that neither really did everything I wanted.

I figured I would start with my trip from last week down to Navy Pier. I started at the Ogilvie Transportation Center and tried to find the route to Navy Pier. Google Transit doesn’t have info on Chicago yet, so that didn’t work. And HopStop.com didn’t recognize Ogilvie Transportation Center as a location — not a promising sign either. I know I could have found the address for both locations, but really, I wanted to type in the two landmarks and see what I could find out.

I thought, well maybe if it was New York. HopStop easily planned my route from Penn Station to the Empire State Building. Google Transit didn’t have NY in its plan, but Google Maps quickly picked up the slack and I found out that it also lists all the stations for MTA.

Now here’s the real challenge. I wanted to see what were my transit options from my house to Chicago. How did they do? Both failed. Miserably. Want to know why? Because, once you leave the area for a transit system, whether Google Transit or HopStop actually carries it or not, it’s like Columbus sailing off the map. As far as these programs are concerned, the world ends with the service area.

Why is it that we insist on treating transit and driving like oil and water? Sure, I understand that with park-and-rides and the like, agencies are embracing drivers more than ever, but for those people not living in major metropolitan areas, transit isn’t even considered — and I would argue that is in part because the option isn’t presented.

Sure, Google Maps has that nifty new “Take Public Transit” button, but if I punch in the address to find out how to get from Sheboygan, Wis., to Chicago, Ill., it’s not there. You want to really integrate Google Maps and Google Transit? How about including that button every time I put in an address and give me the option to show me where the closest stations or stops are that I can drive to and take public transit from there.

HopStop.com, Google Transit and Google Maps are nice. They don’t replace a good agency’s route planning on its Web site, but they are a step in the right direction. But until somebody creates a system that incorporates driving with walking, buses and trains, it will never be that one place people can go to find out transit options in their area.

Thanks for reading the MT Position, updated every Friday.

Fred
fred.jandt@cygnusb2b.com

Posted by Fred Jandt
Editor, Mass Transit

This week’s BusCon starts off our second season of shows for 2007. From here it’s off to APTA’s Annual Meeting, Rail~Volution and CUTA’s Fall Conference and Trans-Expo in short succession. Whew!

BusCon was a pretty good show. I had never been down to it before, but I was suitably impressed. It has a great location. You can’t beat Navy Pier just as fall begins to set in. The weather is warm, but not too warm, and there is plenty to do when you’re not on the show floor. Do yourself a favor, get a cheeseborger (the double is the best) at the Billy Goat Tavern while you are there.

The show had a good turnout. There was a fair amount of people waiting to get into the show floor before the doors opened — always a good sign. BusCon was definitely the place to check out motorcoaches and cutaways with lots of other component manufacturers there as well.

The one complaint I have with this show, as with pretty much every other show, is that it’s not in my backyard. And really, that argument can be made for work and everything else.

While BusCon’s Chicago site was within driving distance, the MT staff decided to take public transit for a variety of reasons. It’s the height of construction season in the Midwest, which makes any long car trip worthy of a second thought. Also, the location was easy to find within Chicago. You didn’t have to worry about parking. There are a lot of trains heading into and out of town. And we wanted to do our part for the environment and the mass transit industry.

That’s the public transportation reasoning. And it’s all very good reasoning. It all makes sense. And it’s hard to argue that logic. But we all know the majority of people argue against transit each and every day despite all of those good reasons for taking it. Sometimes it seems like we’re banging our heads against a wall talking with them because they just don’t seem to get it.

The car driver reasoning?

From my house to Navy Pier is about 140 miles — according to Google, a drive of 2 hours and 37 minutes. The drive to the closest Metra station is about 60 miles — according to Google, a drive of about 1 hour and 34 minutes. This doesn’t take into account the two-hour train ride into and out of Chicago.

I can hear it now, “See, it takes me less time to get there by driving and I can leave any time. If I take the train, I have to get up that much earlier, and I am stuck with when I can leave at night.”

And you know what, I can understand their point. I can. It makes sense on the surface. And when I was driving down to the train station early Tuesday morning, I admit I was grumbling that I could probably have been there by the time I got to the train station.

But for the fifteen bucks I spent on a Metra ticket, I got a chance to take a nap on the way into Chicago in the morning. It wasn’t a great nap, but better than being stuck in traffic on the Kennedy because of construction.

And not only was I able to easily make my train on the way out of town, I had enough time to stop at Ogilvie Transportation Center, grab some dinner and pick up a book to read on the way back home. It was relaxing. It was easy. And it was a great way to go.

If only we could get people to understand that the extra hour or so they spend using public transit every day has all those added benefits they never considered or just dismissed out of hand.

Thanks for reading the MT Position, updated every Friday.

Fred
fred.jandt@cygnusb2b.com