[IMAGE]SouthWest-Transit-campaign-full.jpg[/IMAGE]Minnesota-based SouthWest Transit, the award winning public transit agency serving Eden Prairie, Chanhassen and Chaska, unveiled a new marketing campaign  designed to showcase how a quality transit experience can increase personal "quality time" and benefit the public good.

The first ad is very simple, it reads, “u txt.  we drive.” and has the SouthWest Transit logo below the words with a brown background.  The ad makes it clear that while riders on the bus may be texting, the drivers are not texting and are instead concentrating on the job at hand. The safety message is clear - by taking the bus, texters can be more productive and others on the road will be safer, according to agency officials.

“Originally, this campaign was to be targeted to students who ride our buses to the U of M,” said SouthWest Transit’s CEO, Len Simich. “However, after reading the news articles about the texting while driving studies that came out this week, and learning that 53 percent of all texters are 35 or older, we decided to begin our campaign immediately and use it with all of our riders.” Simich went on to say “while some of our riders have voiced concerns about too much mobile phone use on the bus, those who text don’t bother the other passengers.”

SouthWest Transit will introduce other ads and promotional materials such as T-shirts, bumper stickers and postcards later in August as the entire marketing campaign is finalized and rolled out.