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Hi-tech billboards coming to more subway stations
Computerized billboards on New York City’s subway might bring the system to more closely resemble the movie “Blade Runner” by the end of 2023, MTA officials announced Tuesday.
We don’t have the flying cars or humanoid robots depicted in the 1982 movie, which presented a dystopian view of the world in 2019. But the subways have 5,000 Blade Runner-type video advertising screens, and the MTA plans to install 9,000 more by September 2021.
The agency is scheduled to spend $100 million on the new digital screens. Most will carry ads 80% of the time, and subway service information the other 20%, say officials.
Those 9,000 new screens are just a start. The MTA plans to add even more so that they’ll appear in all 472 subway stations by the end of 2023.
The displays would expand an existing deal between the MTA and the advertising company Outfront Media.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said they were excited about the technology, which lets them quickly update messages and displays to give riders fresh information about their commutes.
“You’ll see transfer possibilities” and information on service outages, said NYC Transit chief customer officer Sarah Meyer.
Not every screen will carry ads. At each station, two displays will be placed outside the turnstiles and will only be used to provide riders with information about service.
The shift ought to make it easier for riders to know when service is scheduled to be interrupted by construction, said MTA chief development officer Janno Lieber.
“One of the classic gripes New Yorkers have about the system is those paper signs [that communicate construction-related service changes],” said Lieber “You’re going to get realtime information about outages and planned work.”
Though the video screens are being rolled out quickly, the MTA lags on its push to install CCTV security cameras in every subway station. Officials said roughly 75% of the city’s stations currently have camera coverage.
The MTA previously planned to equip every subway station with cameras through its 2020-2024 capital plan.
But the financial calamity of the coronavirus pandemic has forced transit officials to pause almost all of their planned construction projects.