Rollsigns from Birmingham, AL
This mylar side rollsign
from Birmingham is
dated March 14, 1995
and has 76 exposures.

Its sign tag is shown below.
TRANP. SOUTH INC.
P.O.4047
D1825-MA SIDE
3/14/95 TRANSIGN
Early transit in Birmingham began with the Birmingham Street Railway Company in 1884. Multiple other private transit
operators initiated service in the rapidly expanding city. In 1890 all these independent services consolidated as the
Birmingham Railway & Electric Company. They would operate Birmingham's first electric streetcar in 1891 and put into
operation Birmingham's first motor buses in 1921. The company changed its name to the Birmingham Transit Company in
1951. That same year the process of dismantling what was left of the once expansive streetcar system. Profits for this privately
owned system dropping as more suburban commuters chose driving over transit. In 1971 the assets of the transit company to
the newly created Birmingham Transit Authority. That same year, the Alabama State Legislature created the Jefferson County
Transit Authority through legislation to oversee and issue bonds for investment in transit. These two entities were combined
into the Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority in 1977. The initial BJCTA system served eight municipalities:
Bessemer, Birmingham, Brighton, Fairfield, Homewood, Irondale, Mountain Brook and Tarrant. Funding was provided through
taxes from Jefferson County and these municipalities and from Federal grants, however the state of Alabama, in compliance
with Amendment 93 to the Alabama Constitution of 1901, provides no funding to public transit. Opposition to funding for
transit is widely viewed to be rooted in racial prejudice. The BJCTA experimented with a downtown "Green Zone" in 1974,
making ridership free within that area. It proved successful for downtown businesses, however, after receiving complaints from
suffering business owners in Homewood and Bessemer, the service was discontinued. Revenue was a big issue for BJCTA,
and struggled to make ends meet, and its sources for funding were unreliable. This came to a head in February of 1981 when
the board of directors voted to shut down the system all together. Birmingham became the largest city in the United States
without a transit system. Fortunately this only lasted three months, and service was reinstated in June of 1981. The damage
was done though, as people found other ways to travel and commute during that time. Ridership only rebounded to just
over half what it was before the shutdown. To this day, BJRTC provides service to Birmingham and the surrounding
communities and opened a new intermodal facility in 2017, however funding shortfalls still continue to plague the system.