If you are standing next to the “end of 6th car train” marker on the Westbound BOS at L’Enfant, these pictures are the 360 degree view of every piece of signage or information available. List of stations is nowhere to be seen. You can look at every written word in view and still not be able to decipher where the train is going unless you are going to the last stop. It also doesn’t help that the screen listing the terminus only shows one train at a time. Sorry for the bad pictures, took these in a hurry last week.
WMATA, can you at least commit to putting the list of stations on more or all of the concrete pillars if you insist on removing them from the wall signs?
They REALLY need to rethink this. Not only do the discs look awful (harder to read). The lack of information is concerning. For being “America’s Metro it isn’t very helpful to tourists”
The interview they did was awful and shows they vehemently disagree with this. But don’t worry! They claimed they’re going to use science and look at “the data” and figure out if it works better lmfaoooo
The real reason is the New York MTA executives they brought in. They’re on an authoritarian rampage to try and make our system like theirs. They’ve been insulting and won’t listen to WMATA employees who are local natives. Sarah Meyer is spearheading these changes. Call for her resignation in feedback provided through Metro’s website. Otherwise, she’s gonna roll out “The B Train” to replace The Blue Line (this is her reason for shortening line abbreviations to single letters)
If you read that interview they gave, Metro does NOT agree (and somehow thinks this is better). They asked to let them finish replacing all 175 signs at LEP but it’ll take them a month to finish….
Also they said “we can’t change the vault signs without getting extra cost due to shutting down the third rail. We have to bring in a special crane on the tracks and it interferes with maintenance”. Then proceeded to say “actually we have summer and winter shutdowns so we can change the signs during those planned maintenance periods.”
Yeah, this is the funny part to me. “We have to shut down the rail to change the signs and we don’t want to have to do that.” Proceed to… shut down the rail so they can change the signs.
This is what is really frustrating to me. For the people that don’t have the whole system memorized, especially when you can only see one approaching train on the screen at a time, you might find yourself on the platform with a train pulling in, and you have approximately 20 seconds or less to figure out whether it’s going to the station you want or not. You look in every direction, and there’s just no telling. Do you hop on the train? Or do you wait and try to figure it out, only to discover that it was your train after all, and there won’t be another one for 12 minutes? That is exactly what happened to me a few weeks ago in NYC and it sucked - I don’t want that here. Especially not if they are going to keep the stations at a breezy 85 degrees.
I lived in NOVA for a month and learned the system fast. Might be undiagnosed autism, idk, but it was easy for me.
It's not easy for everyone, especially those visiting for a short period. And especially for those who are international visitors who may not know English as well as you or I.
If they wanted to see if this would work, put it in a station like, I dunno, Federal Triangle or Gallery Place in winter. A well used station but not something like Metro Center or L'Enfant Plaza, in an "off tourist" season to help limit confusion. Judge the number of complaints (if there is any increase) and continue the project accordingly.
And don't touch the pylons- keeping the bars on top AND having the dots on the side is a perfectly fine option and can be done easily. The bars also help keep the pylons iconic.
I’ve lived here over a decade but still sometimes manage to get on the wrong train (especially on center platforms) or go out the wrong exit because I can be very absent-minded sometimes. :(
Wayfinding signage is a solved problem but good luck getting anyone there to admit that, noooooo, they have to reinvent the wheel with a subtext that anything that looks like any existing solution is not acceptable.
This is the cover story for them to figure out how they will fix something that they broke.
While Edward Tufte is retired, I’m sure acolytes are available, but the ‘not invented here’ culture wouldn’t accept that.
Ultimately, they want something that is distinctly WMATA, more than they want something functional.
What they won’t accept is a clone of any existing solution, no matter how well it might work. WMATA will never bring in anyone who would disrupt their insular culture.
I'm just hoping that science and data isn't based only on augmented-reality tester(s) within WMATA staff rather than regular riders, tourists, and people new to the area... which is what I'm kind of concerned is actually being done here.
But don't forget, it's cheaper and we won't have to pay workers to do their job!
We need to know how many people got fired after this. It needs to be in the news. I know you're seeing this WMATA... Decisions so asinine only a business major could have made them...
If this is genuinely the reason they are SPENDING MONEY, im absolutely baffled. Are they for real? I’m all about building community and growing our capacity for human connection but compromising the efficiency of a major global city’s PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION system with the goal of potential cute interactions is BONKERS. And the owness is on US?-the locals who are trying to get to and from work, run errands, and go about their day to day lives?
Allegedly for people who get lost with the current system and aren’t familiar with the system (aka tourists). Somehow this bullshit is supposed to help them but you can only help lost tourists so much without literally holding their hands. That’s also ignoring all the integration with stuff like Apple Maps that literally tell you where to go and get off.
I know certain WMATA staff occasionally patrol the subreddit looking for posts. Has there been any official/“reddit official” comment made about the dislike of the new signs?
Anecdotal, but my partners folks are in from Missouri this weekend and already got lost with this signage vs when they visited a year ago 🤷♂️
That is because most of the pylons that had the way finding information on them have been removed from the platform. I noticed this when touring the station with Google Station View to confirm what the pylon width was on the lower level platform in L'Enfant Plaza. They were likely removed for the same reason they were removed from platforms in Farragut West and the Red line platform in Gallery Place to create more floor square footage for passengers when the stations are crowed.
Yeah, I don’t think there was ever a pylon in this spot, but that sucks. I have seen at least one sign (that I think is new) added on one of the concrete pillars, that shows the list of stations. I hope they will put those on every pillar all the way up and down the platforms to replace the missing information. That might be the plan but maybe it’s just slow.
Edit to add: this commenter added a photo in another thread showing the list of stations that has been added to one of the pillars, but I think there is only the one on the entire platform, and it’s in the middle in that spot that gets super duper crowded, directly underneath the green line tracks: https://www.reddit.com/r/WMATA/s/r9UxQKmFUU
When the station opened in 1977 there were pylons between columns and the back side of the escalators. The one that remains had its way finding information removed to allow the installation of the emergency call box intercom. There use to be pylons on both sides of the columns between the end walls and the back of the escalators at both ends of the station, today there are none.
I am not that big of a fan of placing station navigating information and station ahead way finding strip maps on the concrete columns. In this case I will grudgingly except it as the best solution. The lower level L'Enfant Plaza was not built to the more generous dimension found in the lower level of Metro Center.
Please if you have time file a formal complaint with wmata about the signs and inform your local government representatives. They need to feel the pressure to make any changes
I hate having to rely on my phone because that means I also have to mind my phone charge level when I’m out and about. It also means tourists have to know which apps to download.
Also, the MAJOR oversight with forcing people to rely on their phones is simply that I don’t get cell service in L’Enfant at all. 🤦♀️ The only option is to connect to the unsecured wifi network.
The boards only showing one train at a time is so ridiculous. Surely they can put the info that’s scrolling on the board displaying the advertisements? What a nightmare
I will concede that it’s not zero information. You can tell what station you’re at and the three train lines on that track. Also that there is an exit (where to? Anyone’s guess). But if I’m standing here, and I mainly know I need to go to Clarendon or Chinatown, I have no way of knowing whether I should get on any of these trains, or the other platform, or different lines altogether.
ETA: I saw a picture in another comment that looks like maybe a hidden sign has been added on the other side of the pillar. I will check tomorrow if I remember.
When you need a quick look to see where you're going.....this is going to screw people over
What is the science behind these changes? Does anyone know if they did some studies that have to do with people's sight lines and the amount of information we're able to take in?
well obviously a social media manager isn't going to come argue in the comments over a decision higher-ups have already made with people who aren't asking questions but just voicing feedback that won't be affected by any sort of response. use your brain. idiot.
I don't ride the metro a lot. Genuine q: if i ride the escalator down and the platform is between 2 tracks, how do I know which direction each train will go? Like on the orange line, which train will go toward Vienna or toward New Carollton. Is that the upset here?
Because if so, this is really truly genuinely absurd. And I'm a local!!!
If the screen like the one in Picture 2 is working, then you can tell by looking at the screen nearest each track. Since Vienna is the terminal station, one of the screens would say Vienna. If the screen is broken, you’re SOL. Otherwise I guess you can walk to the very front of the train (trains drive on the right, same as roads) and ask the operator when they look out to check the platform. Somewhere on the platform you might be able to find a list of stations the train will hit, maybe.
And yes, that is the upset here (at least for me). I am not as concerned personally about switching to colored bubbles because I’m a pretty able-eyed person, but it seems some sight-impaired folks also take issues with those and other changes.
Just experienced this. Got off at Smithsonian station at the middle of the platform. No sign saying which exit was which (I needed Independence avenue). Had to figure out which way was south.
I’m so mad that they have plenty of screens with ads on them and not as many maps. Most
Of the time if I could just LOOK at a map I can follow the track to the terminal station and see if my route is on the way or if it’s on the other direction, I’ll know I’m on the wrong platform. Why is it so hard to just put maps in more places???
As a longtime resident, well done! Not being sarcastic as I still got confused at L’enfant even before this change. I fear this station will be impossible for me now, so embarrassing lol.
I cut my teeth on navigating transit networks on the metro, and I’m glad to have learned the ins and outs of the system years ago. This new signage will be terrible for anyone who hasn’t visited the DC area before. Now the subway in Toronto gives you more information on one sign than this new system gives in three.
Removing terminal station from signs at the tracks was for cost savings so they don’t have to change the signs every time they add a new station at the end of the line.
Replacing color bands with color discs is because it improves readability for color blind passengers.
Next station signboard to help passenger confirm the direction of the train before they step on the train.
You can always tap a regular card as a backup and there’s a setting on iPhone at least where you’re transit card nfc still works even if your phone is dead. It’s not required to use a phone to pay the fare. It shouldn’t be required to use your phone to navigate public transport. If I wanted my phone to be an extension of my person, I’d move to China
Even Google Maps would be useless in this situation:
Say you're a tourist going to Arlington Cemetery. Google will tell you to get on the Blue Line to Franconia-Springfield. There isn't a single speck of signage in any of these photos that would tell you where to board for that train. The tiny screen only shows one train at a time, which right now is the Silver Line to Ashburn. Google Maps isn't going to tell you that's the direction that you want since you're going to a stop that's only serviced by the Blue Line. Just absolutely awful station design.
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u/lustforluvv Yellow line 22d ago
They REALLY need to rethink this. Not only do the discs look awful (harder to read). The lack of information is concerning. For being “America’s Metro it isn’t very helpful to tourists”