(MTA.info)

The MTA announced today that it has finally agreed to turn off the blinking blue lights on SBS buses, due to concerns that buses might be confused with emergency vehicles (really, really big ones?).

Now that the Select Bus Service vehicles will no longer be giving New Yorkers the blues, The Observer has devised a few exciting alternatives:

1. Use the Mr. Softee Ice Cream Truck Jingle

Whose ears don’t perk up when they hear that soft, innocent song? The Observer guarantees ridership would increase dramatically if SBS buses signaled their arrival with Mr. Softee’s jingle.

2. Switch blue lights for taxicab lights

The MTA could replace the blue lights with yellow taxicab lights. But then again, New Yorkers would probably just confuse buses with taxis.

3. Install foghorns

They seem to work for boats. The MTA just has to be sure they don’t sound too much like emergency sirens.

4. Redesign SBS buses to look like Harry Potter’s “Knight Bus”

SBS riders would need only raise their wand-bearing hand, and the bus, complete with a creepy shrunken head to loudly announce stops,would appear. Who could mistake a bright purple, triple-decker bus swerving and squeezing through traffic for a fire truck?

5. Take away the signals entirely

SBS buses might just have to appear from out of the blue.