TheBus scraps colors for new rainbow look
By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer
Honolulu is scrapping its longtime yellow-and-black color scheme on city buses in favor of a rainbow.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
The city yesterday unveiled the new look, designed to emphasize changes in the whole transit system, including development of a hub-and-spoke system and more express service.
Driver Julie Pratt sits behind the wheel of the city's new Opus coach bus, a 30-foot-long vehicle which also sports the new color scheme that will soon adorn all the buses of the city fleet. The Opus bus will be used on shorter routes.
Mayor Jeremy Harris said the rainbow color scheme will be used on all new buses purchased by the city, starting with 10 new 54-passenger Opus Coach buses, which will be used on community circulator routes.
The low-floor buses, which feature easy access, spacious seating, larger windows and a powered wheelchair ramp, cost $268,000 each. Eighty percent of the cost is paid by the federal government.
The new color scheme, which includes petroglyph designs in the rainbow, was developed by local graphic artist Sandy Hiraoka and applied with a vinyl wrap process by Fleet Street Graphics of Honolulu.
"I think the new buses really capitalize on the sense of Hawai'i, and emphasize that this is the beginning of an exciting new time for the bus system," Harris said.
Even so, why get rid of one of the most recognizable logo systems in the whole state?
"The old look was so 1960s," said Managing Director Ben Lee. "This is living in the modern age."
The rainbow design, which first appeared on the roof of the large-capacity articulated buses on express routes, eventually will cover the entire 525-bus fleet. It should take about eight years before the last of the old buses is replaced, said city Transportation Services Director Cheryl Soon.
Reach Mike Leidemann at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.
