Would a creative, new bus design get you to explore the Route 1 corridor?

The organizers behind Route 1 Ride Collaborative bus wrap contest hope so. Today, they announced the winner of an online vote to determine which of three selected finalist designs would grace TheBus' Route 17, also known as the Route 1 Ride. 

According to Stuart Eisenberg, director of the Hyattsville Community Development Corporation which ran the online contest, the voting was neck and neck. 

"It was a little bit of a horse race there," said Eisenberg. 

The winning design, featuring a large paint tube resting on a wooden painters palette, was created by Jennifer Axner. The paint tube features the names of the cities along the Route 1 Corridor. Her design will appear on Route 1 Ride buses for at least three years. 

Axner bested two other contestants, Matthew Gifford and Boshwell Talavera.

Eisenberg didn't have the exact vote totals in front of him, but said that Talavera's design came in a close second.

The bus line connects the Route 1 communities between Mount Rainier and northern College Park. 

Voting took place between late July and September, 2012.