Metro News Release
For immediate release: April 26, 2006
Metro adds new, user-friendly bus maps to shelters and rail stations
New, user-friendly bus maps are beginning to show up at hundreds of bus shelters and rail stations in the region. (See example1, 2 and 3 from Rhode Island Ave. bus bays.
Metro began installing more than 900 large maps this week in shelters and near the exits of 86 rail stations at a cost of over $1 million. Transit agency officials expect installation in and around the rail stations to be finished by fall. By the end 2008, the maps could be installed in the region’s estimated 2,500 Metro-owned and jurisdictional owned bus shelters.
“It used to be that people had to go into the station to find out where to catch a bus or independently read a posted schedule at the shelter that would show a single route. Now a passenger standing at a particular shelter can see all the services available from that location,” said Metro Interim General Manager Dan Tangherlini. “It’s much more user-friendly, and helps tie the whole transit system -- bus and rail together.”
The two-sided, fiberglass color-coded maps are about three and half feet high by five feet wide. They are geographically specific to where bus riders are viewing them. They highlight different bus routes serving a stop on an enlarged portion of regional street maps with a “You Are Here” insignia. The frequency of buses for all the routes serving particular stops at stations are listed along with other local and area bus carriers, such as Arlington Transit, RideOn and the D.C. Circulator. Rail stations, commuter rail lines, landmarks and points of interests are also highlighted with information about how to get there by bus. There’s a legend and directions on how to use the maps in English and Spanish. There is also a neighborhood map with information about walking distances. The maps inside rail stations also show the location of bus shelters outside of the station.
“It is the most comprehensive single piece of at-stop passenger information in the country and provides an excellent example for other transit agencies to follow,” said Rick Wood, president and CEO of CHK America, the Santa Barbara based company that designed the maps.
The maps were an outgrowth from a regional bus study several years ago, Metro officials said. Efforts are under way by regional transportation agencies to install the same type of bus maps in their local bus shelters.
News release issued on April 26, 2006.