• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, June 7, 2013

Bus shelters in Canada’s second-largest city are about to get interactive, thanks to a deal between Quebecor Media and the Société de transport de Montréal, the city’s transportation agency, calling for the installation of digital displays equipped with gesture recognition technology at 40 new bus shelters across the Island of Montréal.

 

The 84-inch-tall interactive displays, scheduled to go live in September, will enable commuters and tourists to see a detailed map of the bus and metro system, catch up on news and weather forecasts, as well as interact with marketing messages. Marketers can reach passengers with video advertising, special discounts and promotional offers, and e-commerce functions. STM chairman Michel Labrecque touted the digital bus shelters as a source of extra revenues separate from fares.

 

As part of the deal, Quebecor will also replace all existing 1,870 bus shelters and add another 850 shelters by 2023. The full term of Quebecor’s contract with STM runs for 20 years.

 

According to STM, passengers took 405 million trips on its transportation network in 2011, about half of which used buses. In 2011 the STM undertook a strategic initiative to increase ridership to 540 million trips per year by 2020, as well as a $300 million bus rapid transit scheme and a new bus transit hub.