Milwaukee is the second city, after Orlando, to have television screens installed on its buses. Although only about 50 buses currently have monitors, most of the city's "green limousines" will soon sport TVs.

Each bus will feature three screens, broken up into four zones. The outer areas provide information like time, date and key stops and the center of the screens shows video features like headline news, sports, commercials and trivia games. The monitors also verbally announce each stop with a coordinating graphic that should be helpful to disabled and non-English speaking riders.

An on-board computer operates the programming by communicating with satellites through a GPS system. The programming is updated through wireless signals but currently can only be modified when buses are in the parking garages. Eventually, wireless communication stations will be strategically placed at various points in the route to regularly update information like news and weather.

The Transit Television Network (TTN) is installing the units and controlling the programming. TTN will equip 25 buses every weekend with screens until 400 of the 500 units are updated. Older buses that will be replaced within a year will not receive the new system.

Advertising covers all of the cost, so passengers will not be burdened with higher fares. "It's $1.50 to ride the bus," says Joe Caruso, who has served as the Milwaukee County Transit System marketing director for 25 years. "And it will stay that way."

But for some riders, the volume, which is pre-set and not adjustable, is too loud. "Before the installation of the televisions, my commute was a rather contemplative time during which I could enjoy views of the city and possibly engage in casual conversation with other passengers," says Jennifer Geigel, who takes the bus most mornings from Riverwest to Downtown Milwaukee. "Now, I feel like I'm being pelted with unnecessarily loud commercial announcements."

Caruso recognizes this as a legitimate complaint and admits that the volume was determined during a test run when there weren't any passengers on the bus. "We know we have to pay more attention to the volume," he says. "This is a work in progress."

The overall goal for the new system is to bring entertainment and information to travelers and to hopefully attract new riders. Approximately 170,000 Milwaukeeans already ride the bus everyday, for a total of about 60 million people each year.

According to Caruso, Milwaukee has one of the strongest transit systems in the country. "We've been given the honor of being America's best transit system twice in the past 15 years based on cost effective and delivery service quality," he says. "We're one of the few systems that have won twice."