As I was waiting for my bus, I realized that the Sendai buses might be different from the buses where you are. First of all, we have two bus companies. One is run by Sendai city and the other by Miyagi prefecture. The fares are the same and you can use the same prepaid cards on both, plus the subway. Basically the city buses are green with some blue decoration and the prefectural buses are white with some red decoration. The bus in the picture is a city bus but it is unusual because it runs on natural gas, rather than the normal diesel engine. The large bump on the roof is the container for the gas.
In order to increase revenue, some buses have been painted as billboards. It is a little confusing because they do not look like a bus, at least not the buses that we are used to. The bus in the next picture is decorated with cartoon characters. I do not remember what they were advertising but whatever it was, it was aimed at kids.
One nice thing about the Sendai transportation system - it is now smoke free. The white sign with the two red characters reads from top to bottom "prohibit smoking", so it means NO SMOKING.
My bus finally arrived, actually it was right on time, I was early. When you get on the bus at the door in the middle, you either take a ticket from the dispenser on the left or you insert your prepaid card into the machine on the right.
There were not too many riders because it was early in the morning (the first bus going to Miyagi Gakuin University, actually) and there were only a few students, who were mostly at the back of the bus. Over the windshield there is an electronic sign that shows the fares based on the stop at which you got on and below that is a fare box and a prepaid card reader. The fare box looks just like what I remember in Brockton, MA, 60 years ago. The yellow upright posts are a new addition, less than a year old. The posts used to be all silver, but someone with bad eyes complained that they were hard to see, so both bus companies changed them to yellow. They either added a plastic sleeve or painted them.
In order to increase revenue, some buses have been painted as billboards. It is a little confusing because they do not look like a bus, at least not the buses that we are used to. The bus in the next picture is decorated with cartoon characters. I do not remember what they were advertising but whatever it was, it was aimed at kids.
One nice thing about the Sendai transportation system - it is now smoke free. The white sign with the two red characters reads from top to bottom "prohibit smoking", so it means NO SMOKING.
My bus finally arrived, actually it was right on time, I was early. When you get on the bus at the door in the middle, you either take a ticket from the dispenser on the left or you insert your prepaid card into the machine on the right.
There were not too many riders because it was early in the morning (the first bus going to Miyagi Gakuin University, actually) and there were only a few students, who were mostly at the back of the bus. Over the windshield there is an electronic sign that shows the fares based on the stop at which you got on and below that is a fare box and a prepaid card reader. The fare box looks just like what I remember in Brockton, MA, 60 years ago. The yellow upright posts are a new addition, less than a year old. The posts used to be all silver, but someone with bad eyes complained that they were hard to see, so both bus companies changed them to yellow. They either added a plastic sleeve or painted them.
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