The danger of glass in bus windows

Glass in Bus Windows

“When travelling overseas to visit window film manufacturers and professional window tinting companies in order to be kept up to date on the latest products and application techniques available, I love to jump onto municipal buses to get around. Firstly it's cheaper than taxis and one gets to experience the local culture and because buses are more elevated than cars, one gets a better view of the surroundings” says Leon Levy, CEO of Klingshield, a window tinting company based in Johannesburg.

Spending time in first world cities, certain situations pop up and one notices the difference in behaviour of the different cultures. Yesterday while travelling on a bus in Sydney I noticed that most people don't look out the windows anymore and take note of what is going on outside. They are either on their iPads, iPhones, listening to music on iPods, emailing their friends or family, reading a story or catching up the news on Facebook.

I did notice some graffiti vandalism on some bus windows. This is a worldwide problem which costs bus companies millions each year. Painting, marking and scratching of glass and windows are occurring to such an extent that transport agencies are forced to replace thousands of windows each year.

Klingshield Smash & Grab Safety Window Film company now offers a product called Graffiti Shield, which is a window film that is applied to the inside of the glass to offer a protective coating that protects the glass. When the glass is damaged the shield can be replaced in minutes. Graffiti film is optically clear and virtually invisible and is becoming more and more popular on buses and other modes of transport around the world.

Something else that I noticed was that the back window of the bus had a perforated one-way graphic with advertising on it. This product is known as contra-vision and offers a clear view from the inside of the bus, yet from the outside one sees the message. The signs are silkscreened onto the perforated material. This product also offers the benefit of some shading.

Perforated vinyl graphs are also used for advertising on shop front windows and on back windows of cars. The only problem I noticed with the perforated window graphics is that when it rains it is difficult to see through as they are always installed on the outside.