Have You Heard?

Port Authority is trying new forms of advertising to help generate more revenue for bus and T operations.

We recently began testing onboard audio ads at five stop locations in Downtown, Oakland and the South Side. These ads are loaded into our buses’ existing announcement system. When the bus passes one of the five stops, a brief audio ad is played.

We understand you may not be used to hearing ads on the bus, but new and different forms of advertising are tools we can use to support our system without raising fares or cutting services to save money.

These audio ads are made possible by a partnership with Commuter Advertising, a company that has successfully introduced this kind of advertising at transit agencies in Cincinnati, Jacksonville and other cities. Commuter Advertising makes money by selling these ads and shares a portion of the revenue with Port Authority. Since these ads use our existing audio systems, there is no cost to Port Authority for this program.

We have a lot of new advertising ideas that we’ll be rolling out over the next year, like website ads. We’re also looking at unused space at stations and along our rights-of-way as possible advertising opportunities.

If you’d like to learn more about the different kinds of advertising we offer, check out our Ad Products page. Or if you’d like to share your thoughts on these ads, don’t hesitate to contact us.