Chicago community screens aid small businesses
An unusual partnership between a digital-signage firm and a Chicago neighbourhood body is attracting bus riders into local businesses.
Technology supplier RedPost partnered with the Wicker Park and Bucktown (WPB) special service area – one of several such organisations around Chicago charged with improving parts of the city – to place screens along four bus routes.
The screens in cafes, stores and community offices not only display information on bus times and other community content, including event advertising charged at $20 per fortnight, but also bring travellers who might otherwise have waited outside into the businesses.
“People come in to check the monitor, and invariably they take a moment to look around,” said one cafe owner.
And besides the benefit for the host venues, it is hoped the network will further the WPB’s aim of increasing use of public transport to ease traffic congestion and demand for parking.
Nine locations have been fitted with screens so far, and a further four are planned to follow. Meanwhile, public-transit staff from Boston are said to be considering a similar system.
The Chicago network draws GPS-generated data on bus movements from the Chicago Transit Authority’s Bus Tracker Application Programming Interface, and sends it to the screens via Wi-Fi.
“The Chicago Transit Authority had already developed the bus tracker for its own tracking and logistics purposes. We are simply providing that information in a way that is easy to access,” said Jamie Simone, programme manager at WPB.
www.theredpost.com
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