Best and Worst Paint Jobs

[LandoverDivision]

Best:

WMATA (New one)
San Deigo MTS
Ride On (Blue)
Fairfax Connector (New one)
Regional Transit (Sacramento)
MTA LA (Silver)


Worst:

Ride On (Green and Yellow)
The Bus (Hawaii)
And more I can't think of right now.

[Antozilla]

TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
WMATA 2nd Generation (Arrow)
WMATA Fourth Gen (new)
ART
FFX Connector new

[Perry]

This probably should get bumped to Beyond the Beltway since it's going to encompass more than just the DC area.

Personally, all buses may as well just be plain white if all they're going to do is advertise.  However, that being said, there is something to be said for something that's basic like NYC Transit as they are easily recongnizable or to do something flashy like Pittsburgh to stand out. It's hard to really rank any of them since there are thousands of transit systems in the Country.  However, a brief listing is as follows:


The ones I like the most:

Well of course I like the gold and blue of RTC Las Vegas
WMATA second scheme
Pittsburgh
CTA
MUNI Silver scheme
Foothill Transit (basic but stylish)
OCTA (basic but functional)
Ride On
Alexandria DASH (as old as that paint scheme is, it still stands out)

The ones I don't care for

PG The Bus (boring)
Fairfax Connector-both schemes (second one, what were they trying to do?)
CUE
LAMTA (particularly the white with yellow stripes)
GRTC (sorry, it's just kinda boring)
NFTA (it would be nice if they got out of the 70's with that paint scheme)

There are so many transit systems that it would take days to rank everyone of them, but off the top of my head this is what I've seen and thought. 

[NewFlyer9736BCT]

My favorites:

WMATA 2nd and 4th schemes
Palm Tran new scheme (on the 2006 Gillig BRTs...for some reason the 2007 Gilligs has the previous theme)
BCT's new theme
Fairfax Connector new theme
Ride-On ('03 Orion VIIs and newer)
WMATA's GEORGE
DC Circulator
WMATA's REX
Port Authority Transit (each bus is a different color and has different quotes and riddles...I love it)

My not-so-favorites:

Old Fairfax Connector theme (bland)
WMATA 3rd gen theme (bland)
BCT's beehive theme (ehh...i was never a fan of this one)
Ride-On ('02 Orion Vs and older)
SEPTA (paint job? what paint job?)
Miami-Dade Transit (just bland)
MTA Maryland (old and new themes...just never cared for them)

[djsiknik]

Favs:
Lynx  (Orlando, FL) VERY colorful and happy
Snowmass village shuttle (Snowmass Village,CO) I like the newest ones with the snowflakes
WMATA second paint scheme with the red and blue stripe into an arrow i grew up liking this scheme, i DISLIKE the blue bottoms on the third.
Ride On i liked it on the '93 30ft Gillig Phantoms

Worst:

WMATA third scheme
RFTA (Aspen,CO) all schemes so far
MTA (Baltimore,MD)all schemes so far if the Maryland flag was a full wrap i think i would like it.
Ocean City transit its BORING

[btconet]

DJ:

What criteria are you using in rating MTA Maryland as one of the worst schemes have observed?

.
.
.

No seriously, I'm kidding.  I'm not fond of the flag scheme at all myself.  It's a definite advertisement scheme.

Seems to me, paint schemes come in 4 flavors:

Extravagent paint schemes that work.

Extravagent paint schemes that don't work.

Simple paint schemes that work.

Simple paint schemes that don't work.

Seems you have the gaudy and the boring, and in between, you get the nice stuff.

Gaudy tends to bring Seattle to mind.  The mix of colors on those buses just leaves me asking why?

Pittsburgh on the other hand offers splashy colors with a wide range of hues that are attractive without being too noisy.

WMATA's paint scheme today is simple and appealing, but I always thought the older scheme was a little dull and institutional looking and made the buses look like they were run by the Post Office.

[WMAveteran]

DJ:

What criteria are you using in rating MTA Maryland as one of the worst schemes have observed?

.
.
.

No seriously, I'm kidding.  I'm not fond of the flag scheme at all myself.  It's a definite advertisement scheme.

Seems to me, paint schemes come in 4 flavors:

Extravagent paint schemes that work.

Extravagent paint schemes that don't work.

Simple paint schemes that work.

Simple paint schemes that don't work.

Seems you have the gaudy and the boring, and in between, you get the nice stuff.

Gaudy tends to bring Seattle to mind.  The mix of colors on those buses just leaves me asking why?

Pittsburgh on the other hand offers splashy colors with a wide range of hues that are attractive without being too noisy.

WMATA's paint scheme today is simple and appealing, but I always thought the older scheme was a little dull and institutional looking and made the buses look like they were run by the Post Office.

I agree with you about Pittsburgh - it is one of my favorites.

[WayneNYC]

Some of my favorites are :

WMATA's second paint scheme
CCT (Cobb County, GA)
MTS (San Diego Transit) Red & White
LA MTA (Local, Express & Rapid schemes)
Bee Line
Ride On - Aging very well
ART

Least favs

NJTransit
MARTA
GRTC
Triboro Coach (now gone)
Metro-Dade
AMA (old)
TheBus (Hawaii) - Looks to 80s for me, but I'd get over it (quickly) if I lived there:-).

Others worth mentioning:

DASH - Still looks nice.

MTA Maryland - I know many don't care for this scheme, but I actually don't dislike it.  Sure, it does have lots of white paint, but I think the flag is a nice touch.  Also it accomodates advertising nicely.

SEPTA - Again, lots of white paint, but I like the way the blue sort of fades into red.  Again - good for ads.

NYC - MTAB and NYCT.  Bland white w/blue stripe.  Doesn't do as well with ads as part of the blue gets covered and I also don't like their new thing of all-white rear ends.  That said, my major gripe with the scheme is that is that it has changed very little since 1981.

CCT (GA) - It has a bit of a 80s look, but I still like it.

CTransit - Lots of blue, but I think it's nicely done with a touch of gray.

[RailBus63]

The ones I don't care for


NFTA (it would be nice if they got out of the 70's with that paint scheme)

Are you referring to the orange and brown scheme with the disco lettering?  NFTA does have a newer scheme of white with blue and gray stripes and a gray skirt that actually isn't too bad looking.

[Perry]

Yes, the old orange and brown scheme is what I was referring to.  I forgot they had that newer one.  I hadn't seen pictures of their fleet in some time. 

[rideonrulez]

Let's see.....

Best in no particular order:

Ride On's current scheme (though not condusive to ads)
Pittsburgh PAT
Orlando LYNX
BWI's Rental car shuttle
Fairfax Connector's new scheme (the "condiment scheme")

Worst in no particular order:

NYCTA/MTAB
SEPTA (though ideal for ads)
MTA Maryland (If the flag took most of the white out it would be pimp!)

[Tritransit Area]

DJ:

What criteria are you using in rating MTA Maryland as one of the worst schemes have observed?

.
.
.

No seriously, I'm kidding.  I'm not fond of the flag scheme at all myself.  It's a definite advertisement scheme.

Seems to me, paint schemes come in 4 flavors:

Extravagent paint schemes that work.

Extravagent paint schemes that don't work.

Simple paint schemes that work.

Simple paint schemes that don't work.

Seems you have the gaudy and the boring, and in between, you get the nice stuff.

Gaudy tends to bring Seattle to mind.  The mix of colors on those buses just leaves me asking why?

Pittsburgh on the other hand offers splashy colors with a wide range of hues that are attractive without being too noisy.

WMATA's paint scheme today is simple and appealing, but I always thought the older scheme was a little dull and institutional looking and made the buses look like they were run by the Post Office.

Interesting point about how some attempts at good schemes don't work.  Personally, I'm not really that much of a fan of the Lnyx scheme (although it's great that they have multi-colored buses), but I do love the Pittsburgh scheme.  I prefer PAT's buses because of the color choices that aren't basic - they have colors like Pewter and Plum - and the messages/Port Authority graphicing makes them even more interesting!

I'm surprised so many people disliked the Ride On scheme, particularly the original blue slash Ride On scheme.  I always thought the original blue was the best...kinda had a blend effect without the use of actual blending.  The CNG scheme is a wonderful play on the original blue, IMO.

It's interesting to see your points of view.  I think one of the worst schemes out there include SCAT (where's the paint), and the slanted line scheme that MARTA, Houston Metro, & LANTA like to use (NJT used to use this until recently).

I think my personal favorite is the Pottstown Area Rapid Transit scheme.  Since it's such a small TA, here's a pic:

[79MetroExtraMD]

Best

Ride On
NJT
LA MTA (all three)
King County METRO
Sound Transit
Community Transit (Snohomish County)
DASH (both Alexandria and LADOT)
BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport (the Neo CNGs have a nice scheme that should have been MTAs)
MUNI (the new grey scheme)
Golden Gate Transit
PAT (I like how each bus has a different color. I wonder how much it is to paint each bus tho)
LYNX (everything but the pink)

Worst

SEPTA
Miami Dade
NYC (I can't stand the damn blue stripe)
MDMTA
DUH BUS
TheBus (the rainbow series. Looks too u know the word)
Howie's Truck

I'll add more when I see pics of the other TAs.

[WayneNYC]

Interesting point about how some attempts at good schemes don't work.  Personally, I'm not really that much of a fan of the Lnyx scheme (although it's great that they have multi-colored buses), but I do love the Pittsburgh scheme.  I prefer PAT's buses because of the color choices that aren't basic - they have colors like Pewter and Plum - and the messages/Port Authority graphicing makes them even more interesting!

I'm surprised so many people disliked the Ride On scheme, particularly the original blue slash Ride On scheme.  I always thought the original blue was the best...kinda had a blend effect without the use of actual blending.  The CNG scheme is a wonderful play on the original blue, IMO.

It's interesting to see your points of view.  I think one of the worst schemes out there include SCAT (where's the paint), and the slanted line scheme that MARTA, Houston Metro, & LANTA like to use (NJT used to use this until recently).

I think my personal favorite is the Pottstown Area Rapid Transit scheme.  Since it's such a small TA, here's a pic:

Re: Ride On - I agree that the original with the white bottom was the best.  It still looks good, but I think it's time to do something else now that they're applying exterior advertising.

I think the old New York Bus Service had the best color scheme for advertisement as none of the non-white areas were covered.



This is probably the best looking paint scheme I've ever seen.  It catches your eye, but isn't too busy and doesn't have the 80s black window outline



I also like Golden Gate Transit.  Again, not too busy but the ads don't cover up any of the other colors.



SamTrans is OK, but in my opinion it definitely needs to come out of the 1980s.

[Tristan]

"If I ran..." okay I won't go there but I'll at least say that I wonder how our (DASH) current scheme would look on buses to come - namely, low floors...

Here's one I kinda like that I'm not even supposed to mention - King St Trolley.  Not sure if I have a pic of it (I'll post one if I do or take one if I don't) but it's nice for a bootlegged trolley to have a paint scheme other than the standard burgundy or hunter green with gold script lettering that seems to come with "trolleys" the way yellow comes with school buses...too bad the vehicles are complete crap.