If you’ve ever tried to avoid being stuck in traffic by using public transit to an event, you know timing is key to catching the next available ride. Sports fans in Boston are getting some help to do that with a huge digital billboard outside of Boston’s famous Fenway Park. To help fans stay on top of the public transit schedule, the billboard displays the times for several forms of public transit, including the train, the bus or even how many bikes are available at a nearby bike share station!
The board is the biggest and first outdoor display in the area, although more than 50 smaller screens just like it have been in use for awhile in various venues around the city, including some local bars, restaurants, apartment buildings and other public areas where the schedule may be of interest. The screens are the brain child of a Washington DC based startup called TransitScreen. The Washington DC based startup usually targets real estate developers or businesses who have guests that may be interested in the public transit schedule. The Fenway display is not only the company’s first outdoor display, it is also the company’s largest in the country. The company says they hope to replicate the digital billboard in other cities as well.
But transit information isn’t the only information displayed on the huge screen. A Columbus, Ohio based ad agency owns the board. They say their hope in displaying the transit information is to get more eyeballs on their advertising content. Pete Scantland is the Chief Executive of Orange Barrel Media. He says, “What we’re trying to do is add value to the content on the screens, such that people want to look at them. Think of it like television-if there was no content between commercials, there would be a lot less viewers.”
Plans for an upgrade are already in the works for 2017…the company plans to launch a service that would enable anyone within 200 feet of a TransitScreen to also pull up the information on their smart phone. No word on the next city slated to get the technology…hopefully an Atlanta digital billboard will be in the works soon!