RTD’s buses are boring looking. There are no two ways about it.
While the transit agencies of other nearby large cities such as Salt Lake City and Albuquerque have adopted sleek new paint schemes, RTD has continued to use the same dated livery that has decorated its buses for years.
Even the transit agencies of Colorado Springs and Pueblo are doing better than RTD at making their buses look good.
Of course what color you paint your buses isn’t as important an issue as how often or reliably they run, but neither is it completely unimportant. Make buses more recognizable, more desirable, dare I say more cool, and more people ride them. People like nice cars after all; they also like nice buses.
Make your transit stand out rather than blend into the background, and at the very least people will take notice.
So in that vein, I took the liberty of brainstorming a few possible replacements, which are included at the bottom of this post.
In the interests of full disclosure, please note that these are strictly unofficial. RTD has no proposal to actually adopt any of these paint schemes. This is just the sort of transit nerd I am.
The first proposal is based loosely on the Colorado flag, the second is intended to evoke mountains, and third simply arranges RTD’s existing orange and white color scheme into a more contemporary design.
If you’re a huge transit nerd as well and would like to give a shot to inventing your own paint scheme, feel free to download a blank bus template and have at.
I was sitting outside Goosetown Tavern the other day, and a completely black bus pulled up to the light. It was sponsored by a rum company. Painted jet black, it was quite eye catching.
Did not at all make me more likely to get on a bus.
I would much rather see every bus with advertisements on the side and an upgraded interior.
I like this idea! I have noticed a few of RTD’s alternative fuel buses that have a nice look to them (tiny photo here: http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/962/alert7183.jpg).
This bus from Southern California may be my favorite: http://metroprimaryresources.info/come-ride-with-us-on-the-rolling-submarines-of-los-angeles-scrtds-1974-street-fleet-beach-bus-service/1346/
The options all seem so busy, not sleek or have any chance with surviving the test of time. Also the livery should be good for the Light Rail, the 16th street mall shuttle, etc. as well as the Airport train. It should also match signage and other RTD branding as well. As a special taxation district getting this all to match is probably important to getting across to voters what RTD accomplishes (which is a lot!).
Denver Business Journal is reporting an offer to build out the light rail North line using a ton of short term private money- any thoughts?
In addition to a better livery perhaps a new name should be considered. Regional Transportation District is similar to the names of three current and one defunct other transit agencies, Sacramento Regional Transit District, San Joaquin Regional Transit District, North Central Regional Transit District (New Mexico), and Southern California Rapid Transit District (merged to Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority). In addition it is about as interesting or lyrical a name as “Human Resources Department”. I doubt I could come up with a really great name, but surely there is a better one out there.
I think Denver’s transit vehicles have to to be the ugliest in the world! I agree that a new name would be good, particularly for the light rail system. “Light rail” is a technical term. Most transit systems have some sort of catchy name that people can refer to. Naming it the “Metro” would be better than “light rail.”
I couldn’t agree more. The busses are very boring and look very early 1990s. I like what LA Metro and SF Muni have done to make their busses and trams look more up to date. In fact, I like the new RTD Fastracks design scheme with the red, white, black and gray. I think they should apply that to the busses and trains in a contemporary way. No more cheesy stripes!
I didn’t like this current scheme when RTD first put it out there. I’d rather go back to the all-white buses from the 1970s-80s, with RTD in red, followed by “The Ride” in brown. It was a classic look, very clean, very Modernist. The current three-tone stripes were a step backward.
I actually like RTD’s current livery, it is simple, clean, has a nice reference to the mountains, and is not tacky. I would leave it as is except I would make the blue stripe wrap around the front of the bus/train, b/c they do look a little plain without it. The worst was the previous generation with the yellow/orange/red stripes and the giant “the ride” slogan.
A new name for services would be welcome however!
I think before we worry about trying to make buses cool again, we should be concerned about covering the entire light rail in McDonald’s and Crown Royal ads. Nothing says ‘cool’ like a big mac and a shot o’ whiskey, right (Dang freedom of speech)? And until FasTracks gets built out, I’m not sure the taxpayers want to pay for fancy new names and designs when they thought their money was going to expand infrastructure and service. If they did though, I sure like the first rendering based on the Colorado flag. Creative work Dan Call it being a transit nerd, or call it classic stripes…but I have a picture of the seat from the light rail as the background on my iphone.
“we should be concerned about covering the entire light rail in McDonald’s and Crown Royal ads.”
^^ This. Could we have a transportation system that isn’t synonymous with “tacky moving billboards” first? Once we can afford not to plaster soul-draining ads on our busses then we can think about new livery. Or fix both together, but get rid of those gross ads.
While aesthetics are nice, I agree with Planner T insofar that those are late considerations. We have an incomplete system. I’d rather see a tram on Colfax than hundreds of pretty buses.
And I see no issue with RTD, I’d rather an acronym from historical base than a name used in hundreds of other cites.
Have them look like Clyfford Still paintings…