MTA Aims to Help Motorists Get Over the Pump

Dennis Tsurumoto looked up as he pumped gas into his dirty white Toyota Tundra.

Above the Shell station at Fairfax Avenue and Olympic Boulevard was a Metropolitan Transportation Authority billboard with an enormous photograph of a woman’s wrist handcuffed to a gas pump next to the words: “Free Yourself. Go Metro.”

“Very clever,” Tsurumoto said.

Tsurumoto, 40, had already heard the MTA’s radio ads pointing out that its $3-a-day transit pass now costs less than a gallon of gas and encouraging drivers to try public transit.

“It’s not a bad idea,” he said as he prepared to drive home to Pomona with his wife after visiting Los Angeles’ Farmers Market on a recent afternoon. “I was actually thinking about it.”

That’s the reaction MTA officials were hoping for when they launched their “Free Yourself” advertising campaign last month.

“People need to see transit as an option,” said Warren Morse, the agency’s marketing director.

Transit officials are targeting Tsurumoto and other potential “discretionary riders,” who have cars but might be persuaded to use public transit.

“With the increase in gas prices, that gave us a tremendous opportunity to get across to people that there is a great savings in riding Metro,” Morse said.

Whether it’s the ad campaign or simply the high cost of gasoline, more people are turning to public transit, according to the agency’s records.

Boardings on Los Angeles County’s Red, Blue, Gold and Green rail lines were up 11% over last year in the first quarter of this year, transit agency statistics show. Bus boardings -- which exceed 1.1 million on weekdays -- were up 7% for the same period.

The MTA’s newspaper advertisements use the same photographs and headlines as the billboards, but taunt drivers further, asking: “So what are you waiting for, $5 a gallon?”

The MTA has a bus or subway going “just about anywhere you are,” they say. “And think how much you’ll save when we do the driving.... Don’t be a prisoner at the pump. Plot your escape from high gas prices....”

An MTA telephone survey found that people who have seen the agency’s ads are twice as likely as those who have not to experiment with riding public transit, Morse said.

The agency budgeted $270,000 to pay for ads on 35 billboards and 115 bus shelters, in newspapers and on radio stations beginning last month, Morse said.

The latest installment in the agency’s $3.4-million-a-year marketing campaign to build ridership, the ads also can be found on the side of 600 MTA buses.

“It implants the idea,” Morse said.

The campaign is getting mixed reviews. “I hate it,” said the operator of the Shell station at Fairfax and Olympic, who would give only his first name, Simon. “Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do,” he said, explaining that the people he leases the property from authorized the billboard. Still, he said, he doubted the strength of its message.

“That’s not going to work here,” he predicted, pointing to the Mercedes and Lexus sedans weaving in and out of his business during the evening rush hour.

Joel Mills, 53, didn’t notice the billboard when he pulled into the station and began pumping $46 worth of gas into his Pontiac Grand Am. When he saw the ad, it didn’t change his mind.

“Does it make me consider Metro?” the Marina del Rey resident asked. “Actually, no.” Mills, who travels around making commercials, said he would buy a hybrid sedan to reduce his fuel costs before he would buy a bus or subway ticket.

“If I go to New York or D.C., the first thing I do is look for a subway or a bus. This is not that kind of town,” said Mills, who added that he doesn’t like the MTA reminding him of how much more he’s paying these days to fill his tank.

In trying to change attitudes, the MTA has included estimated driving costs on its website, www.mta.net. Potential riders can use the site to find out not only where they can go but how much they will save on Metro.

Mauricio Linares is among those discretionary riders who said he might be persuaded -- with or without the MTA’s billboards -- to get back on a bus if gas prices continue to climb.

The 22-year-old said he adds a few gallons to the tank of his 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse every day -- $10 or so at a time.

Linares could buy a weekly transit pass for $14 or a monthly pass for $52.

When he tried public transit for a week in early May, Linares, who delivers wine, said it took him an hour and two buses to get from Mid-City to Beverly Hills -- a trip that usually takes him 10 minutes by car.

Still, at some point, he said, he might opt for the longer commute because of the cost of gas.

“If it goes higher,” he said as he pumped, “yeah, I will.”