SANTA BARBARA, CA (11 January, 2005)

Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District won “First Place” in the annual “Ad Wheel Awards” held by the The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) for their new passenger information product, the “Art of Travel Pocket Map & Guide” designed by Santa Barbara company, CHK America.

Each year, APTA members submit their very best advertising, marketing, promotional, and communications materials in the media categories of print, electronic, campaigns and special events to the Ad Wheel Awards competition. The best of the best are selected by a panel of independent judges and winners were announced at APTA’s Annual Meeting in Atlanta in October. APTA’s Awards Program recognizes excellence in the public transportation industry. In addition to the well-known Hall of Fame award, the program recognizes-in the individual category-an outstanding transit manager, transit board member, business member, an elected or appointed official, and a decision maker or private citizen advancing transit at the state and local level.

The APTA Awards Committee selects winning transit agencies in four basic categories divided by annual ridership: agencies providing fewer than 1 million passenger trips, agencies providing more than 1 million trips, agencies providing more than 4 million trips, and agencies providing 30 million or more trips.

Lynnette Coverly, MTD Manager of Marketing states, “MTD is pleased and excited to have been honored by APTA for our new little pocket map. Now entering its second printing, the pocket map has become a popular item for passengers, tourists, commuters, and occasional users of public transit who prefer this color-coded wallet-size transit guide over the cumbersome 108 page bus book. A special thanks goes to CHK America whose expertise in the area of passenger information guided us to this easy-to-use product.”

“It was a pleasure working with MTD to develop this innovative passenger information product,” comments Wood. “The design was a wonderful combination of information and convenience for the passenger. It was a challenge to design a product so exquisitely compact and at the same time prove to be so useful to MTD’s passengers.”