New uniform maps and signs for the Bay Area’s 27 transit agencies were unveiled this week and will be installed at three locations later this fall in a pilot effort to provide riders with a less confusing way to use the region’s public transportation systems.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), the Bay Area transit agency that spearheaded the $6 million project more than two years ago, said the new signs and maps emphasize service frequency – a key driver of transit ridership – using standardized colors, line styles, and labels to indicate how often a bus, train or ferry arrives at a particular stop. They also show bus lines whose schedules are coordinated to provide more seamless service.
“This is part of making our fragmented Bay Area transit network more of a unified, easy to understand, rider-friendly network by providing consistent signs in every location regardless of which transit agency actually serves that location,’’ said MTC spokesperson John Goodwin.
The ultimate hope is that making the region’s public transportation more user-friendly will increase ridership, something transit agencies need following massive drops in ridership during the pandemic.
The goal is to have the new maps and signs at every Bay Area transit location down the line. Whether you’re at a bus stop in Walnut Creek or getting off an escalator at the Montgomery Street BART station in San Francisco, the signs and maps are designed to get you where you need to go quicker and with fewer headaches, officials said.
“I’m glad they are doing this because sometimes it can be confusing getting around,’’ said Marsha Goodsmith, who was traveling from the Dublin BART station to downtown San Francisco on Tuesday. “Sometimes I wait for a bus that never shows up and then I miss my other connection.”
Transit officials say the new maps and signs, anticipated to be installed this fall at the Santa Rosa Transit Mall, the nearby Santa Rosa SMART station and the El Cerrito del Norte BART station, will show riders all nearby transit options in a given area and how often they operate.
Facility maps will show transit users where to board a connecting transit route and how to access station amenities, such as restrooms. Line diagrams will guide people to the correct train platforms and display stations served down the line.
Goodwin said the two spots in Santa Rosa and the El Cerrito location were chosen as test locations because they serve multiple transit agencies.
The Bay Area’s 27 transit agencies are working together on new signs and maps to make getting around easier and more efficient. The prototypes will be installed at three locations later this fall.
The new signs feature three colors—golden yellow, sky blue and dark blue—as well as simple icons to identify service by trains, buses or ferries. The icons are larger and easier to see than the logos of the individual transit agencies providing services at each location. New transit signs will also include tactile and Braille elements.
Brad and Kiley Redstone, in the Bay Area from Pennsylvania, were trying to navigate the BART system to travel from the Dublin station to San Francisco’s Mission District on Tuesday. The Redstones said the agency’s maps are confusing because the San Francisco stops don’t actually indicate they are in the city.
“I mean, it might be obvious to people who ride the trains all the time, but we are new to it and so the more information we have, the better,” Brad Redstone said.
The signs that will be installed at the three locations are prototypes and MTC and its partners want feedback from the public on what they did right and what needs to be improved.
Riders will be able to interact with several test signs, maps and other communication materials at the Santa Rosa and El Cerrito locations and provide comments about their experiences to MTC staff members. Transit officials said the public feedback will help them refine the signs and maps when they install them at seven more locations across the Bay Area next year and in 2026.
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Goodwin said the MTC signed a $6 million contract with Applied Wayfinding Inc. in 2022 when the project began. The project was bankrolled by a combination of state transit assistance money, toll funds and federal money, he said.
The new signs and map follow MTC-sponsored surveys, workshops and focus groups where 90% of 1,000 Bay Area respondents — including transit riders and non-riders, people with limited English proficiency and people with disabilities — identified uniform and easy-to-use transit maps and signs as an important priority for improving the region’s transit network.
