28 SEP BART TRAIN, PITTSBURGH BAY POINT BOUND

Since my first trip on the BART, I have had difficulty understanding the announcements from the speakers in the car. The poor sound quality mixed with the ambient noise of wheels over tracks makes it hard to hear. Coupled with poor signage both on trains and platforms, I found it next to impossible to identify stops. How are visitors supposed to be able to use the BART effectively if they have no ability to know where to get off?

I found an article in Slate Magazine titled The Secret Language of Signs. It is a five part essay on way finding, and how people are reliant on good signage and visual cues in order to navigate the world effectively. It documented a bus that drove off a ramp and killed its occupants because there was no signage that indicated the route the bus was on was a left lane exit into a stop light. Signage has come a long way since ad hoc wooden arrows at forks in the road. However, the increasing number of people needing to get to places in a timely manner has increased the importance of a well-designed sign.

The second section dealt with disparate signs in the same building used by multiple occupants--Penn Station in New York City. Having no unified signage system, travelers transferring from say, the subway to a regional train are met with signs that point in several directions, signs that are hard to read, or signs that are impossible to find in the underground labyrinth. I myself remember a trip to Europe that went through John F. Kennedy International Airport, also in New York city. It was undergoing renovations and had detour signs posted all over the place. My family was utterly lost due to multiple signs pointed in opposite directions.

Part three documented London’s attempt at making its literally medieval street layout navigable by citizens and tourists alike. Legible London, it is called: a series of monolithic slabs posted about the city that display key information: a map oriented in the direction the reader is facing, major landmarks highlighted, places within walking distance, and local amenities listed. I think San Francisco needs one of these systems,  at least for bus stops.

I won’t summarize the rest of the article here, but I believe if BART simply put electronic signs inside the car, perhaps above doorways and midway through the carriage, information can be better articulated to the passengers, removing any doubt of what the conductor is saying.