NYC’s OOH Bus Shelters Taped Off Over Corrosion Worries

October 16, 2018 by Dave Haynes

Out of home media giant JCDecaux is having a rough week in New York, with many of its transit shelters (which exist as ad positions) all wrapped up in yellow police caution tape.

The media company has shut down something like 1,400 shelters around the NYC boroughs as a cautionary move, concerned about corrosion in bolts that support the shelter roofs.

A corroded bolt reportedly caused the roof of a bus shelter on Staten Island to partial collapse. No one was hurt, but it caused a big oh-oh. JCDecaux says it has started inspecting all 2,500 bus shelters that share the same design.

Once shelters are inspected and cleared (or repaired), the shelters will be re-opened. The open question, of course, is whether the OOH media company will have to do compensate for the loss of audience, as the ad posters that anchor all those transit stops are a little hard to see through the yellow tape.

The rough part of all this is that the problem appears to be inherited, as the shelters in question were put in by Cemusa, a media company that had the ad contract in NYC, but was then acquired by Decaux in 2015.

The inspections are expected to be done by the end of this week, and then those shelters installed after 2012 (another 1,000) will get a look.

Bus riders deserve the best level of service whether it be on the bus or when waiting in a bus shelter. DOT expects JCDecaux to keep the city’s bus shelters safe & well maintained. We agree with their current actions & will monitor to make sure the shelters are inspected & safe. pic.twitter.com/Fw2d059FG4

— NYC DOT (@NYC_DOT) October 15, 2018

Not sure how many of these bus shelters are digital. They are mostly digital in Manhattan and more likely back-lit posters out in the boroughs.