Ever Feel Lost on Public Transportation?
September 9th, 2006
Is it a coincidence that millions more Americans travel by car and plane than bus or train? “The very word ‘lost’ in our language means much more than simple geographic uncertainty,” wrote Kevin Lynch, who cleared a path for the modern art and science of wayfinding in his landmark work, The Image of the City. “[I]t carries overtones of utter disaster.” Getting lost on public transportation may not be disastrous for passengers, but when tourists are turned off by the experience, it’s a disaster for cities; when new users aren’t turned into repeat customers, it’s a disaster for transit agencies and for society; and even regular riders sometimes require reinforcement.
We all know that being lost is a bad experience. Wayfinding design, for those unfamiliar with it, is about creating creating comforting experiences through designing understandable spaces that make people feel in control of their surroundings and choices.
For many, unfortunately, public transportation represents the opposite of a comforting experience.
Thus, I’m excited about San Francisco’s Wayfinding Project and the steps they’re taking towards enhancing the wayfinding experience of transportation users. Their recommendations are simple but practical, and include….
Recommendations for Busses and Streetcars:
• Include Transfer Information on Signs
• Add Signs Featuring Destination Information
• Improve Shelters and Provide Basic Information at All Stops
• Simplify Destination Descriptions
Recommendations for Subways and Commuter Rails:
• Color-Code BART Lines
• Remove Outdated, Damaged and Non-Standard Maps and Signs
• Clearly Differentiate BART and Muni Entrances
• Streamline and Enhance Station- and Platform-Identification Signs
• Add and Upgrade Directional Signage
• List and Give Directions to Destinations Near BART
• Add Signs Along Pedestrian Pathways to BART
• Clearly Designate Pathways to Connecting Transit
Food for thought… What have your public transportation experiences been like? Do you have any suggestions for ways that your local transportation system’s wayfinding experience could be improved?
LINK: The San Francisco Wayfinding Project [via Adventures in Urban Living]
RELATED: Rethinking the Library Experience
Entry Filed under: Interactions, Methodology, Transportation
4 Comments Add your own
1. John Markos O'Neill | September 9th, 2006 at 6:44 pm
This post reminds me of a few weeks ago, when I took MUNI to a ham radio class in Golden Gate Park. I got off of the train at Forest Hill Station and got on the correct number bus going the wrong direction! I ended up near Glen Park BART and lost about 45 minutes.
In another case, I required the unsolicited advice of pedestrians to help me transfer MUNI buses. Although according to the map, the transfer was at a single stop, in reality, the second bus boarded around a corner and perpendicular to the first bus. This was not obvious from the map.
These suggestions should help make transit more customer friendly. We need more obvious directions. Changing the number of a bus going in the opposite direction would help too: e.g. 51N for one direction, 51S for the other.
Only one bus stop per corner would make things easier, too.
2. Allen K. | September 9th, 2006 at 9:08 pm
The Boston “T” employs a brilliant convention in their train stations: in addition to the general transit map, a line is shown with all the stations on the current train, but only the remaining stations are listed by name. It’s an extremely unambiguous way of indicating which direction the train is going, and focusing one’s attention on the stops that are actually relevant.
3. Peter | September 11th, 2006 at 1:27 pm
The Boston mass transit system has horrible signage. Most of the new signs look extremely unprofessional and temporary even though I’m guessing they’ll be permanent. 50% of the buses show the wrong route and/or use a paper sign in the front because they can’t get their electronic display on the front to say the right route for some reason. On the subway, they direct people where to go using an “inbound/outbound” analogy which is extremely unhelpful when you’re already in the downtown area where everything is “outbound”. In their South Station subway station, there’s a large central area which leads to turnstiles in different directions but there are no signs anywhere! I had to look for signs *beyond* the turnstiles to figure out where I was supposed to go.
The London transport system is probably the easiest semi-complex mass transit system I’ve been on. Every bus stop has a little map showing what buses stop at that stop and where each bus goes. The Tube is relatively easy to use. The way that there are multiple trains on the District and Circle lines are sorta confusing but you figure it out after a little while.
I feel like I “mastered” the London transport system after only a week of being there, while after living in Boston for five years, the incompetence of the MBTA still gets to me.
4. Jon | September 19th, 2006 at 8:05 am
I agree with Allen, in that listing only remaining stations is great, but it seems as though these maps in the Boston T are always in the worst possible location. Either they are on a little kiosk that has a bench in front of it (Park Street), or it is on the opposite wall, which you can’t see when the train is there. That’s exactly when you need to see the map! The wayfinding is better in the newer stations, but they have apparently no intention of improving it, even where it needs it most in the downtown corridor.
My main gripe right now is the impossibly slow shift to swipe cards in the Boston T, I have several cards that I can’t use most places I go, but I had to buy them for one station that was converted (no tokens allowed) In some cases I’ve been asked to pay again once I borded the train, even though I swiped the card at the turnstile (Prudential). The drivers tend to be the most disrespectful and unknowledgable about the changeover too. I had to tell the operator to get off my back about trying to use the card on the green line. I then was trying to fold my dollar bills us small enough to fit in the stupid slot, and he thought I was attempting grand larceny against the MBTA, the way he treated our group. It can be pretty souring, as the bad experiences add up.
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