New signs at downtown SF stations part of BART wayfinding improvements

Written by jrood

BART riders are noticing new and improved signs in downtown San Francisco stations, part of an ongoing program throughout the BART system for wayfinding and signage improvements.

Signs are just one element
of the bigger concept of "wayfinding" — the science, or some would
say art, of how people get from place to place and orient themselves in their
physical environment. The recent upgrades seen most prominently have been in
the busy downtown Montgomery and Powell Street stations. "These are very
crowded stations, especially during rush hour, and sometimes you cannot see the
signs," explained Tian Feng, District Architect for BART.

There are two types of
station name identifiers on the walls: In some places, the station name appears
on the wall at eye level — visible from inside the train if the car happens to
stop with a window positioned outside the lettering, but obscured if you are on
the platform and a train has pulled in. Other signs — designed to be visible
regardless of whether a train is in the station — are placed higher, above the
level of the train, so riders can look across the platform above the opposite
side and see which station they’re in. Even those, however, might not be seen
from all angles, depending on the crowds in the station.

When the previous signs in
Montgomery and Powell had to be removed anyway for a deep-cleaning project, it
provided an opportunity for new signs with better visibility. The new ones
above the train level are a larger font size, with greater contrast against
colored-stripe backgrounds, to show up better. The station name lettering on
the wall at eye level is also bigger.

While it may appear to the
casual observer that the station names above trains are simply painted on the
wall, they were actually fabricated from metal and placed on the wall for a
more reflective surface. The Montgomery wall signs have white letters against a
burgundy-stripe background, while the Powell ones have white letters against an
orange-stripe background. "These were partly inspired by the history of
the stations," Feng noted, explaining that long-time BART riders might
remember those shades being used in the early years of the stations’ history.

On the list for upcoming
sign improvements are Civic Center, along with Embarcadero, which is a more
complicated job. Embarcadero is darker and has a lower ceiling, limiting the
height at which signs can be placed, and also has a different material for
station walls — marble with raised circular emblems, not the flat stucco
surface of some others. "It is more of a challenge, but we are not giving
up," said Feng. He said riders can expect to see a different approach at
Embarcadero, including backlit signs over the center platform.

Embarcadero Station already
has some other signage improvements at the concourse level, including new
touches such as an orange circle with an italicized letter "i"
inside, designating "information" — where additional information is
available, such as on transit connections. There is also greater use of
pictograms, symbols that point the way to things such as escalators, elevators
and buses.

In addition to
functionality there is, of course, the subjectivity of aesthetics involved in
signage decisions — there’s no shortage of opinions on style, color or
materials involved. (At least the font is settled: There’s a designated
"BART font," Frutiger.)

Feng said a major
accomplishment has been instituting a unifying set of facilities standards that
includes signage, something that previously did not exist in the BART system,
with the resulting chaos and inconsistency that a lack of standards would
naturally create.

Feng is trying to fix that
now using universal design concepts, one station at a time, and as the work can
be fit into other projects. For example, whenever a station has major
construction such as the modernization project at Ashby, an effort is made to
improve signage at the same time. The new standards incorporate elements such
as pictograms or graphics when appropriate, in addition to or in place of text,
for greater accessibility.

Step by step, the goal is
that all stations eventually will adhere to the standards to have greater
consistency and — ultimately — better usability for riders.

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