Public Transportation and Promotion

Promoting the Use of Public Transportation
Introduction
Public transportation serves numerous purposes: first, it helps to ease congestion in urban areas by decreasing the number of cars on the road at any given time but especially during busy traffic hours; second, it helps people who may not otherwise have means of getting to work obtain these means; third, it can reduce pollution and fuel emissions that can harm the environment. All of these are good reasons for using and promoting public transportation. The problem of how to promote public transportation, however, is one that needs to be solved. In order to solve it, a variety of factors have to be considered: a) who is most likely to use public transportation—i.e., who is the audience to whom the message needs to be communicated; b) where are these individuals most likely to need to go; c) how can the benefits of public transportation best be communicated to motivate the target market to use it? This paper will show that the best way for a city to promote public transportation is to keep prices low, make access points as convenient as possible, and keep the public transport system safe and clean so that it appeals to all people no matter their demographic.
Significance of the Problem
The problem is significant because of the negative outcomes that can be avoided were public transportation to be utilized more thoroughly by the populace of a city. To preserve the health of the atmosphere by cutting down on smog, people should use public transportation as it is essentially like an enormous car pool operation that allows individuals to get where they need to go without having to drive their on their own. It prevents congestion and allows traffic to flow more smoothly into, through and out of a city (Parry, 2002). It also enables people who work in the city to get to their jobs. Were public transportation not available, pollution would be worse and the air would likely be unfit to breathe (Woodcock et al., 2009). Traffic would be congested at busy times and stress levels of individuals would increase (Sibinga et al., 2011). However, if people are not moved to use public transportation either because they do not feel safe using it or they are turned off by the lack of cleanliness or it simply costs too much, then none of these negative outcomes can be avoided. Therefore, in order to prevent these outcomes, public transportation has to be promoted more effectively, and that means it has to be maintained efficiently and offered at a low cost to commuters.
Recommendation to Solve the Problem: Why Cost, Cleanliness and Safety Matter
The best way to promote something is to let the product or service speaks for itself—and a service best speaks for itself when it is timely, efficient, effective and trustworthy. For public transportation to be promoted, it has to first offer value to the commuter at an affordable rate that makes financial sense for the commuter. The commuter is going to be thinking of how much he is saving by commuting via public transportation each month—and to that end, a subscription service is one of the best ways to lock in low rates month to month, as Thogersen (2009) points out. Cost is always going to be the most effective way of promotion because it puts the value of public transportation in monetary terms that every citizen can understand. If it saves one’s wallet, one is more likely to see the value in it. Thus, a promotion of public transportation should focus on the savings it can bring to one’s budget by cutting down on gas expenses, parking expenses and car expenses. This would be the most strategic way to promote public transportation because not everyone is going to feel as strongly about reducing risks to the environment or cutting down on traffic—but virtually everyone can admire savings to one’s budget.
However, that does not mean that the environmental protection afforded by public transportation is no less important. This approach will simply appeal to a limited number of people, as not every believes that protecting the environment is important. Nonetheless, many people do, so promoting public transportation as a means of reducing pollution, as Woodcock et al. (2009) show it is, would be a good way to win over that part of the urban population that likes to support green energy and sustainability. Any type of public service that is designed to protect the environment is likely to win their patronage, so promoting public transportation as an asset in the sustainability movement would surely be a selling point. Many companies today promote themselves as leaving zero foot print and engaging in sustainable practices to appeal to consumers—from Patagonia to Eileen Fisher to Tesla. The city could easily do so as well and enhance its reputation among the population as having a firm foundation of social responsibility that will further enhance its appeal.
To help in the promotion, the city would have to show that the public transportation is both safe and clean. Nothing attracts attention more than a clean system that shows it has been properly maintained—and public transportation has to convey the image of dependability and safety, otherwise no amount of promotional material will be of use in attracting the people to it. Clean and safe services are a must as Banister (2000) argues: “the city has all the potential to provide the highest possible quality of life with a friendly, clean, safe and secure environment” (p. 115), and citizens know that. Therefore, they want to see the city take the time to make sure the services it offers are up to a standard that is agreeable to the community. Cleanliness, safety and a feeling of security will do more to attract a range of commuters from women and children to adult men who wish to ride in peace and comfort when in the city than almost any other means of promotional display. To enhance its security, the city could provide all public transports with their own security detail. Cameras in all cars and stations could also be mounted to better give the public the impression that everything is watched.
Conclusion
In summation, the issue of public transportation is very important for the well-being of a city, as it helps to cut down on traffic congestion, reduces the potential for smog and atmospheric pollution, and helps to give individuals an opportunity to get to their places of employment. Not having a public transportation system can mean all the difference between a clean, congestion-free, progressive city that helps to support its citizens’ needs and a city that is polluted, covered in smog, constantly congested, and indifferent to the commuting needs of its population. Thus, this issue is highly significant and bears a great deal of impact on the reputation of the city as well as on the lives of the citizens who call that city their home. Still, the public is not going to be interested in a public transportation system that does not promote itself as being a low-cost alternative to driving to wherever one needs to go. For that reason, the city should promote its public transportation system as being highly affordable by offering a monthly subscription that can help commuters calculate their savings up front. Additionally, the city should promote the system by properly and effectively maintaining it: that means keeping it clean, safe and secure. The more secure passengers feel and the more comfortable they notice the transport system to be, the more attractive it will become.
References
Banister, D. (2000). Sustainable urban development and transport-a Eurovision for
2020. Transport Reviews, 20(1), 113-130.
Parry, I. W. H. (2002). Comparing the efficiency of alternative policies for reducing
traffic congestion. Journal of public economics, 85(3), 333-362.
Sibinga, E. M., Kerrigan, D., Stewart, M., Johnson, K., Magyari, T., & Ellen, J. M.
(2011). Mindfulness-based stress reduction for urban youth. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 17(3), 213-218.
Thøgersen, J. (2009). Promoting public transport as a subscription service: Effects of a
free month travel card. Transport Policy, 16(6), 335-343.
Woodcock, J., Edwards, P., Tonne, C., Armstrong, B. G., Ashiru, O., Banister, D., ... &
Franco, O. H. (2009). Public health benefits of strategies to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions: urban land transport. The Lancet, 374(9705), 1930-1943.