New WMATA station area map, Metro Center

New WMATA station area map, Metro Center
Originally uploaded by rllayman

I have discussed the WMATA maps before, which generally are pretty good, but have one glaring glaring omission that make it hard for commercial districts to benefit from transit and transit maps.

For some reason, government agencies are very very very very very reticent about listing "for profit" entities on maps, even if these are high profile activity centers and destinations with high attraction for transit users, such as grocery stores.

So these maps don't list key commercial destinations. (I have photos of the maps for Metro Center, King Street, and Bethesda.) In the Metro Center area, the map does includes the Downtown Macy's Department store, but in neighborhood stations like at Takoma, the nearby and adjacent commercial district is not included, nor are grocery stores.

This makes no sense.

The categories that WMATA includes on the maps are:

- Places of Interest (historic and other sites)
- Civic/Government Buildings
- Transportation sites (such as other subway stations)
- Hospitals/Medical Centers
- Schools/Colleges/Universities
- Parks/Open Space

Now, this isn't a station area map in the same way, but STM in Montreal has more fanciful station area maps that identify destinations around subway stops, including commercial districts.

Station area map, Montreal subway, Guy Concordia station

The travel book publisher Ulysses publishes a travel guide to Montreal based on these maps.