WMATA bus maps

WMATA bus map mouse pad.

In the lunch line, I met Toni Byrd from WMATA. Among many things she does, she coordinates the WMATA bus map project--the new maps in stations and on bus shelters at WMATA subway stations. She also helps lead the bus stop improvement working group that the various jurisdictions are organizing to make things better for bus riders.

As a result, I scored this nifty WMATA bus map mouse pad, produced as a promotion by Ed Easton of CHK America, the contractor responsible for creating the maps.

Toni said the maps are fiberglass and pretty much indestructible. She's the person to contact if there is graffiti on the map (I mentioned the problem at Brookland, which hadn't been reported, and she promises it will be corrected next week).

She said that there haven't been many problems with vandalism with bus shelters and maps on WMATA properties, although part of that is most shelters are plexiglass. She said that surprisingly, they have more problems with vandalism at suburban stations than in the city. (This makes sense to me from the "eyes on the street" perspective. City stations and shelters are more heavily used and therefore "watched." Even though we tend to experience more vandalism of street furniture in the city.)

She said the WMATA rule of thumb is that they'll fix something three times if it has been vandalized but that there is a "three strikes and you're out" perspective, that if it happens three times "people must not want it there."

I learned that Toni is a good person to know...


Index Keywords: transit; wayfinding