Ads on vehicles is driving force

Advertising on public transit vehicles is nothing new around the country. It is common in bigger cities to see advertising "wraps" on buses.

And some communities across the nation are even selling advertisements on police cars. A USA Today article reported that some businesses have been willing to sell police cars to the city for $1 in exchange for the right to splash their logo atop the hood of the car.

City officials in St. Charles, Mo., recently began selling advertising on garbage trucks.

Cape Girardeau city manager Doug Leslie said officials have talked about selling sponsorships, but have not seriously considered selling space on city vehicles.

"On most of our vehicles, our dump trucks and service trucks, a lot of them have utility beds and there's just not a lot of usable space," Leslie said. "There's only room for a couple of signs and it might appear that the city is favoring one business over another. If we had a bus system, we might consider that."

Doug Richards, who oversees the university's transit system and is also the chairman of the county's transit authority board, said the university has not considered selling space.