Human Transit Legibility as Marketing the to-Via Question

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07/30/2009

legibility as marketing: the to-via question

From Portland's newly rebuilt transit mall, here's a great example of the idea that clear information is th e

best m arketing .

Ev ery transit line goes TO some endpoint VIA some street or intermediate destination. But which matters

more, the TO or the VI A? Which should be emphasized in the naming of a route and the signage on buses and

stops? Both, if you can do it succ inctly. But if y ou have to choose, think about where on the route y ou are, and

what information is most likely to be useful there.

Many agencies still make these decisions largely o ut of habit, and miss chances to make their service legible.

For an ex ample, co nsider Portland's Frequent Network Route 1 2, Barbur-Sandy. Here's the transit agency 's

schematic map of the route. Downtown Portland is in the middle. The west half of the route, between downtow

and Sherwood, is mostly on Barbur Blvd. The east half, between downtown and Gresham, is mostly o n Sandy

Blvd.

If yo u see the bus o n 6th Av enue in downtown Portland, the electric sign on the front and sides of the bus will

present a nirvana of legibity:

12 SANDY BLVD / to GRESHAM TC

If yo u know Portland, y ou know where Sandy Blvd. and Gresham are, so that brief sign tells yo u a lot about wha

this bus is going to do. Y ou may not know that TC stands for transit center, but even if you do n't, this sign tells

yo u that there's a bus go ing out Sandy Blvd as far as Gresham. The sign does mo re than identify which bus this i

it also prov ides a subliminal marketing func tion, by informing every one who sees the bus that there is a

bus out Sandy Blvd. to Gresham, from right here.

The simplicity o f the sign depends, of course, o n the simplicity o f the route. Portland is fortunate to be a


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relatively gridded city with long arterials that carry a single name. The transit agency, Tri-Met, co ncsiously

tries to design routes that follow single arterial, and name them after that arterial, so that people get the idea

that the service is an intrinsic part of the street. (Many other transit agencies do this, but there are man

that co uld but do n't.)

The sign "12 SANDY BLVD / to GRESHAM TC" the simplest and briefest way to describe both the VIA and the TO

Some agencies (such as Seattle's King County Metro) would habitually do it in the other order; their sign would

say: "12 GRESHAM / V ia Sandy Blvd." That's not wrong, but it feels more roundabout to me. Y ou c ould argue

that the VIA information is more important than the TO, bec ause more people are going to points on Sandy

Blvd. than are go ing to Gresham.

But what matters most is that both pieces of information are there, because b oth are important. If yo u're going

to Gresham, you still need to know that this bus goes v ia Sandy Blvd. bec ause that may not be the most direc t

route to Gresham from where y ou are. If yo u're already out on Sandy Blvd. somewhere, the "to Gresham" is stil

helpful as confirmation of which way on the ro ute this bus is going. Good wayfinding has a bit of

redundancy, to send confirming signals that a person is going the right way or c hoosing the right service .

(The only time yo u don't need the V IA is when the line y ou're describing is always the fastest route between all

points on the route, including its endpoints. For ex ample, a sign on Portland's rapid transit system, the MAX

light rail, can just say "GRESHAM" bec ause from all points on the line, light rail IS the fastest way to get to

Gresham, and the light rail system is simple enough that there's no q uestion about what route it will follow to ge

there. Even so, VIA information nev er hurts, as redundancy . Signage on New Y ork subway trains, for example

often mention which Manhattan av enue the line follows.)

All the same c onsiderations apply to the information on a transit stop.

Now co nsider this very prominent sign, from Portland's newly rebuilt transit mall along 5th and 6th A v enues in

the heart of downtown. (In case y ou're wondering, this one's at 6th & Oak!)

.


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It says "12 To Gresham TC." No mention of Sandy Blvd. And that doesn't make sense. At major centers where

there are lots of serv ices to cho ose from, the VI A is ev en more important than the TO. If you're in downtown

Portland, and y ou want to go to Gresham, you do n't want Line 12, y ou want MAX light rail. But if you're in

downtown Portland and y ou want to go any where on Sandy Blvd., y ou do want Line 12 , in this direction, at this

stop. And Tri-Met missed an obvious opportuntiy to conv ey that information in a place where it would have

serv ed well as marketing -- a place where lots of people walk by.

To be fair, this isn't spec ifically a transit mall problem; Tri-Met's stop signs fail to give the V IA information

anywhere, even at other transit centers where it's the more important than the TO. For whatever reason, theexpertise behind the bus signage didn't get through to the stop signage. San Francisco MTA, for example,

always giv es you both.

On this typic al San Francisco sign, the all-caps text is a streetname (i.e. the VI A information) while the TO

information is just below it.

If yo u like legibility as much as I do, watching buses on the Portland transit mall can be a real pleasure, because

most of them display pro minent electric signs that tell yo u as much as they can, in just a few words, abo ut wher

this bus is going, and their cumulative effect is to show that a lot of the city is easy to reach from right where y oare. To anyone who konws Portland, there's very little mystery about signs such as:

4 DIV ISION / to 122nd A venue

9 POWELL / to 98th Av enue

19 GLISAN / to Gateway

58 CANY ON RD / To Beaverton

And because these signs flash so prominently in a place where mo st of Portland will walk by at o ne time or

another, I suspect they do a lot of good subliminal marketing. Y ou would have to be pretty self-absorbed to

walk down 5th Av enue ev ery day and not learn that there's a bus from here going out Div ision Street, and if


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basics: the case

for frequency

mapping

paris rapid transit:

the four levels of

nomenclature

los angeles: some

thoughts on the

challenge, for "the

...

someday that fact turns out to be useful in your life, there's a chance y ou'll remember.

Bus serv ices can be pretty legible, if your transit agency c ares enough to get it right. Tri-Met got it's electric

signs on the buses right, but their bus stops signs, especially on the mall, are missing an easy win. Is y our c ity

doing better?

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Excellent art icle.

One more (bad) example in th e abov e picture, wh ich y ou missed.

The 9 4 bus is adv ertised as "to Port lan d"; th is from a sign in the middle of--y ou gu essed it--down town Port land.

If y ou're not fam iliar w ith Portlan d--and ev en I ha d to go look it up, y ou w ouldn't know tha t th e 94 route comes into

town from the southwest, and terminates downtown, and that the 6th and Oak stop--on the northbound transit mall--i

only a few blocks short of the end of the lin e.

(And her e is a silly question th at som eone m ore knowledgeable tha n m e can an swer; if I wer e to boar d this bus at this

point an d head nort h; would I be kicked off at Bur nside Street, w here th e bus tur ns around and starts its retur n journe

or if I wa nted to go to Sherwood and didn't w ant to wal k an extr a block to SW 5th--th e south boun d ma ll--could I boar d

here?)

Like


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At any ra te, in either case, a better endpoint indicat ion th an "Port land" seems appropriat e

Posted by : EngineerScotty | 07/3 1 /2009 at 03:22

Logical r oute num bers are also useful for legibility . Va ncouv er's bus sy stem m ore-or-less kept th e legacy of th e pre-

existing streetcar sy stem which used the num bered avenu es for route num bers. For instance, r oute 4 follows 4t h

Avenue, route 41 goes along 41st Avenue, etc. This practice is far from ubiquitous, but it's another hint as to the logic o

the system. An y city with a num bered grid should probably take that into account, too.

Posted by : Des | 07/3 1 /2009 at 03 :46

Scott y -- 94 is a ONE WAY Peak Express line. It doesn't t ur n a round at Burn side, it ju st goes in and out of serv ice ther e.http://trimet.org/schedules/w/t1094_1.htm

So no, y ou couldn't do that .

Posted by: Jar rett at Hum anTra nsit.org | 07 /31 /2009 at 09:53

I agr ee, though it 's not alwa y s the case tha t picking u p the num ber of a num bered street is th e best way to confer

legibility . It would not, for exa m ple, be a good idea to do this out in Su rr ey , (e.g. 1 08-10 8th Av e) becau se it would

confound th e larger g eographic order in which Surrey route num bers are all in the 3 00s.

Posted by : Jarrett at HumanTransit.org | 07 /31 /2009 at 1 1 :10

Phoenix follows som ethin g of a route nu mber -to-street nu m ber scheme. It can 't do it in all ca ses, though , because ther e

a case wh ere both 7 th Av enue and 7th Street hav e a bus line.

Phoenix also has a ra rit y in a "0" line nu mber .

Posted by: Wad | 07 /31 /2009 at 1 2:46

The other t hing is wha t y ou do on r outes that go via wandering r outes. For th at, destination is the only way to go.

Posted by : calwatch | 07 /31 /2009 at 1 3:45

I would hesitate to call them wandering r outes, but th ere are routes that inevita bly hav e to follow sev eral m ain

ar teria ls in order to be useful, fairly direct routes. My conclu sion to this issue is that th e bus num bers should hav e som

ra tionale to them th at speaks to th e serv ice first, followed by som e geogr aphica l reference. LA Metro's Rapid are al l 600

and Sound Transit's Regional Express ar e all 500s. In wh ich ca se y ou m ay not be able to prov ide a subtle m ar keting plo

th at lets people know th e major corridor of trav el but if people get the idea tha t 600s are frequent fa st and reliable they

will begin to look for r outes beginnin g wit h 6 .Nam ing a route by the predominan t street also is problematic for in terlining; it discourag es it. While a city such as

Seattle where interlines are fairly comm on, y ou consequently lose the opportu nity to ma rket th e serv ice as one-seat

ride from ar eas on eith er end of a cent ral business district.

Posted by : Multim odal Man | 07 /31 /2009 at 1 4:44

Denv er also does th at, including a Route 0 up an d down the centr al street.

Posted by : Jason McHuff | 07/3 1 /2009 a t 1 6:45

Nice art icle and dissecting of Port land. While th e tra nsit ma ll stop signs don't giv e all the informa tion, ther e are

adjacent in form ation signs wh ich do ha v e simplified maps of all the routes, albeit at th e v ery bottom. In addition, th er

will be Transit Tracker signs which m ay giv e both the line nam e and destination.

But Tr iMet bus stop signs DO give v ia inform ation, ev en listing m any of the streets the r oute ta kes. Howev er, th e

stickers for t he Frequent Serv ice lines just say "Frequent Serv ice to X".

Also, I should note tha t in other cities such as Salem, routes are na m ed after destina tion neighborhoods, an d require a

ma p from a schedule to figure out wh ere exactly they go. But a s you point out, ma ny TriMet routes are named after th

m ajor street(s) they serv e; the big exception is express routes, which often just giv e a destination.

Posted by : Jason McHuff | 07/3 1 /2009 a t 1 8:1 0

Jarrett,

The first exam pe of the Bar bur - Sandy would be OK for t he local, but got me t hink ing a s someone wh o doesn't know

Portland.


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My first question w as 'does it go down town'? This migh t be alm ost a giv en for a small er city 's bus netw ork (eg A delaide

or Hobart ) but not for somewh ere like Melbour ne w here 8 0%+ of routes don't.

Plus th ere's that blank space abov e the m ap th at I think could be better used wit h a m ore descriptiv e description.

Hence for a th rough -rout ed 'pendulum ' route, I'd describe it

Barbur Bv d - Down town* - Sandy Bv d and ther e'd be plenty of room on th e ma p to do th is. Also the Downtown bit m ake

it easier to v isualise this as an interc han ge point.

(*) or local equiv alent, eg City , Civic, Centra l etc.

As well as th e above t here a re other considerations, eg do we u se str eets, subur bs or l andm ar ks as descriptions?

Then t here's th e ma tter of notation: A - B - C instead of A - C v ia B. I lean towa rds the form er. Th is is wort h an item in i

own right , w hich w ill appear soon.

Posted by : Peter Parker | 07 /31 /2009 at 1 9:44

In Moscow (a nd probably m ost cities of the form er USSR), signs on buses wer e not digital in an y wa y , ra th er th ey wer e

boards with t he inform ation h and-lettered on. Th e form at w ould hav e the r oute nu mber on th e left t aking u p the full

heigh t, t hen t he destina tion in medium size letters at t he top, followed by about 3 l ines' worth of inter m ediate points of

im porta nce. If the route passed by a subway station, it would alm ost certain ly be mentioned there. Signs at th e stops

were also han d-letter ed, and I believe just h ad route nu mber a nd destina tion, but a lso frequency inform ation (or a

timetable if the bus ran less frequently than every 30 minu tes or so). Interestingly, tram , tr olleybus, and bus routes

had entirely separate num bering systems, so there could be a Tram #5, Bus #5, and Trolley bus #5, and th ey 'd hav e

absolutely nothing in comm on.

Posted by : anonym ouse | 08/01/2009 at 03 :29

Hey, be than kful that y ou ha v e any TO or V IA inform ation to begin with . In Tel Av iv , buses brandish the route

num ber, and th at's it. Stations hav e TO but not VIA data, because ev en art erials are pretty short, so each route ru ns o

m any streets. In Singapore buses and stations display TO data only , wh ich is as a ru le far beyond wher e y ou w ant t o go

Posted by : Alon Levy | 08/01/2 009 at 05:58

Since we're singing th e praises of Tri-Met, an d criticizing th em a s well, it is useful t o m ention this ar ticle on

ht tp:/.port landtr ansport .com, pra ising th e agency for "open-sour cing" its route data a nd makin g it av ailable for th ird

party applications.

After al l, w hat 's cheaper--putt ing electronic readerboards on t housands of bus stops, or lett ing people use their cell

phones to figur e out w hen t he next bus is coming?

Posted by : EngineerScotty | 08/01/2 009 at 07 :23

Yes, th e old sty le bus stop signs hav e VIA inform ation as secondary to the TO inform ation. But San Fran cisco, by

contra st, is v ery clear th at the "one or two m ain ar terials" constitute a "route na me," which t hey use consistently . In a

relativ ely gridded city such as Portlan d, this is optimal for legibility .

Posted by: Jar rett at Hum anTra nsit.org | 08/01/2 009 at 2 1 :09

Actually Portlan d's agency recently rev ised their signage to optimise legibility in this regard, adv ertising both w hetheth e bus goes down town A ND wh at it does bey ond tha t. In the new scheme, a bus inboun d on Barbu r (a nd hence

outbound on Sandy ) has a sign t hat says som ething like

1 2 BARBUR SANDY / To Gresham / Via Port lan d City Cent er

Where "/" indicates a new page of the scrolling sign.

As it approaches down town, t he sign cha nges to

1 2 SAN DY BLVD / To Gresham

Note too tha t th e newest buses hav e GPS-driv en sign age, so th ere are no longer pr oblems with dr iv ers forg etting to

cha nge th e sign. In th eory this could be used to modify signs ev en more frequentl y to be most useful for each segmen t o


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the route.

Posted by: Jarr ett at HumanTr ansit.org | 08/01/2009 at 2 1 :12

Alon. Yes. I assum e Tel Av iv and Singa pore ar e both dealing w ith du al alph abets as well? This reduces the possibilities

dramatically.

In New Delhi, t he new m odern buses ha v e electr ic signa ge in both Hindi and English, but u nfortu nat ely not both . If

y our bus com es display ing a sign in t he wr ong a lphabet for y ou, y ou're out of luck.

Posted by: Jarr ett at HumanTr ansit.org | 08/01/2009 at 2 1 :16I guess wh at I can offer is an exam ple of the negat iv e extrem e, as our r egional tra nsit guy s seem t o be phoning it in.

(www.hrtransit.org for Hampton Roads Transit, which serves Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth,

Suffolk, Ham pton, and Newport N ews).

The r outes are num bered. The stops ar e ma rked by signs with a logo and the lett ers "HRT" and, in some in stances, a

route nu m ber. Som e of the m ajor tr ansfer points hav e shelter s, and one of those som etim es ha s an out dated sy stem

map.

The electronic signs indicate th e route num ber and a v ague description of the endpoint, w hich is actu ally quite useful

th e stops wit h shelter s are ar ra nged so both directions approach from t he same direct ion to th e same point, so th e sign

does help passenger s av oid gettin g on th e wr ong bus. Thin gs like "Down town". At least one uses on t he sign n ot t he

endpoint (wh ich is a local college campus and major tr ansfer point), but a ma ll 1 5 m inutes away .

The newest buses hav e signs that allow th e message to scroll, so th e rout e num ber and endpoint ca n alt erna te wit h "v ia

and a m ajor w ay point or road nam e.

Also, m any of the buses seem t o cha nge nu mber som ewha t ra ndoml y . At som e tran sfer points, Bus A meets bus B and

both then r everse direction on their original route, wh ereas at others when bus A m eets bus B they swap num bers, an d

each proceeds back along th e oth er's route. One bus cha nges num bers 3 tim es along its route. Another ch ang es num be

to make a quick run t o an industrial park, th en changes num ber back at t he same point an h our la ter. The driv ers are

not consistent about wh ether a num ber chang e requires ev ery body get off and pay the fare a gain, a nd official policy is

not just unclear but actually obscure.

Before the most recent ch an ge in the fare stru ctu re, a far e was good on an y bus for 2 hours from w hen it w as purcha se

This replaced a product called an "extend-a-ride" wh ich w as $0.7 5 and did the same th ing, and also replaced the

Transfer w hich was free. The problem wa s that, wh ile the website and literatu re said the extend-a-ride (or 2 hour fare

car d) was good on "any bus", in pra ctice if y ou tr ied to use it to boar d a bus with t he same r oute num ber boun d in the

opposite direction, th e pay ment ma chine would reject it. Th e driver would then explain that the policy was y ou could

get on any bus exceptfor t he sam e route in th e opposite direction. Ema ils asking for cl ar ification of the official policy

went u nanswered.

Ev ery system could be doing better w ith signag e and mar keting, bu t I'd love to live wh ere some of the problems y ou'v e

mentioned were the big problems with the sy stem.

Posted by : Spy One | 08/02/2009 at 1 7 :13

No, they both m ostly use single alph abets - Tel Av iv uses Hebrew (wit h a bit of English on the line ma ps), and Singa po

uses English (with announcements in Mandarin, Malay , and Tam il on the subway , but not on buses). At an y rate, t he

lang uag e issue does not prev ent Sing apore from signing bu ses som ethin g like "1 4 t o Bedok" and "7 t o Bedok v ia Orch ar d

wher e Orchar d is only one segment in th e middle of the 7 's route.

In t he end, I'd chalk t he lack of good VIA data to the la ck of US-sty le grids. Tel Av iv 's str eets are short - ev en th e ma jor

streets are only about 3-4 km long. Singapore ha s longer streets, but ev en so its street m ap is v ery irregular , and to top

it off its streets wind.

Posted by : Alon Lev y | 08/03/2009 at 1 5:22

San Francisco is incredibly user friendly. Not only are th e signs inform ativ e, but ev ery bus shelter ha d a system w ide

map at it.


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London rocks for t his too. The buses hav e great signage w ith m aps as well. A lso, at ev ery tu be stop there is a

neigh borh ood ma p wh ere th e nearby bus stops ar e noted with a letter . If y ou see a bus stop lettered "H" on t he m ap, y ou

will see a pole at the bu s stop with a lett er "H" at t he top of it. V ery user-friendly .

Posted by : Dan Wentzel | 08/04/2 009 a t 03 :22

EngineerScotty:

Electronic tools for accessing sy stem m aps, trip plannin g, an d finding rea l-tim e inform ation can be v ery useful for

making services more legible and visible.

More links and ar ticles on open data for facilit atin g inn ova tion can be foun d here:

http://www.trilliumtransit.com/blog/tag/open-data/

Someth ing of a tangent ... Th is post made m e think about legibility v s. v isibility . The distinction is legibility promotes

understanding, and visibility promotes awareness.

I worked on a pr oject for th e Cham paign -Urbana Mass Tra nsit Distr ict m ainly focused on incr easing v isibility . As part

a serv ice improv ement m arketing push, the tr ansit district signed up partner businesses along t he route with increas

serv ice. They wer e acknowledged as par tner s on a cam paign-specific website in excha nge for putt ing up tim etables an

posters in t heir businesses. A ny way , h ere's the site: http://www .green1 5.org/

I know ther e hav e to be some good examples of com m un ity ma rketin g par tner ships out ther e I don't know of. Can

any one sha re or brainstorm som e ideas?

Posted by : Aaron Antrim | 09/07/2 009 at 03 :39

In m y local town, th e route na me is the art erial street it (generally ) follows. The route num ebr and nam e (in capitals)

display ed on the front, th en the display cy cles thr oug h som e major wa y points. Defineatly a good way of doing it.

My m ain g ripe is that th e sam e info is shown r egar dless of direction or wh ere th e bus is on its rout e. So, y ou could see

'down town' on th e display , but th e bus ma y ha v e passed down town an d be heading *aw ay *! Ideally , th e info should

cha nge depending on th e bus's location. (Wheth er by GPS or t he driv er pressing some but ton on teh cont rol unit. )

Posted by : Tom West | 02 /20/201 0 at 01 :20

Reading t his post made me r ealise how frustrating it is liv ing in a city with an entir ely priv atised and deregulated bus

netw ork. All big Br itish cities with th e exception of London w ere forced to sell off their bus sy stems to priv ate concerns

the lat e 1 980s and th eir networks are run in a way that ma kes sensible inform ation provision im possible.For exa mple in Manchester a lm ost all t he buses to the south of the cit y go down one ma jor r oad (Oxford Road) to captur

the students from the Uni and then fan out using v arious minor r oads to reach their m ain ar terial route. Since the

priv ate companies hav e complete contr ol of the route t hey can a nd do change t hem to compete with other companies

meaning that useful inform ation (how they get to their m ain ar terial r oute) is not stable.

Posted by: Chris | 04/1 1 /201 0 at 1 9:43

I used to liv e in a pla ce tha t al so used thebus line n umbers to its adv anta ge. Take for exam ple the lines 5, 25, 3 5, 45

65 of th e following bu s network:

ht tp://ww w. av v .de/fileadmin /sites/av v /down load_FTP/Netzplaene/Ortslinien_Netzplaene/aachen .pdf

All th e "5er lines" go from West to the Sout heast, passing thr ough th e city center, and bran ch out at both ends of the

trunk line.

Similarly , the "7 er lines" 7 , 27 , 37 , 7 7 r un on the North -South a xis using the sam e trunk line.

Adv antag es: When I'm on t he tr unk line (i.e. city center) I don't hav e to think about which bus to take u nless I hav e to

go to a certain branch. Just take the next x7 for exam ple. It au tomatically increases serv ice frequency (at least for th e

locals in the know). An x5 bus would alway s get m e home.

This kind of num bering is may be (or n ot?) easier to adopt in r adial sy stem than in a grid system. N ew w orld systems

would hav e to use some prefix num bering, e.g. 14 1 , 1 42 , 1 43 ..., to not run out num bers.

Thinking about it, th ere could be a lot of way s to ma ke num bering m ore intuitiv e. One could affix certain

prefixes/postfixes to a cert ain str eet, av enue, or la ndma rk. How do the professionals assign l ine nu mber s?


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Posted by : Mike | 04/29/201 0 at 07 :17

I liv e on Sta ten Island in N YC, an d the bus stop poles only say wh ere th e bus goes. For exa m ple, at a ll stops on th e S46 ,

th e sign on the bu s stop pole will say "S46 : West Shore Plaza". When th e bus com es in, th e sign w ill flash "S46 : West

Shore Plaza v ia Castleton Av enue"

Personall y , I thin k th is sy stem works well (th en ag ain, I know t he sy stem inside out, an d a good portion of th e ridership

is regualr r iders) because the m ost direct r oute to the destination will only inv olv e 1 or 2 m ain streets.

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Human Transit Legibility as Marketing the to-Via Question

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