Submitted by Jon in KC, who says:

This is the new KC Streetcar pylon map, updated to reflect the Main Street Extension that opens this Friday, October 24th. It also shows the Riverfront Extension, which will open sometime early next year. I’m curious to get your thoughts. I have some concerns about the limited amount of contrast between the dark blue station lettering getting lost on the darker backgrounds, Art Museums and UMKC in particular, but maybe I’m overthinking it.

Transit Maps says:

You’re spot on in your assessment, Jon – the contrast ratio throughout this map borders on the Pass/Fail threshold for accessibility throughout, and it’s not just the dark blue type on a mid-blue background, but the grey text on that same blue and even the dark green labels on the (very bright) green parkland. It serves as a reminder that transit map designers have to consider accessibility as part of their design – contrast ratios for readable text and carefully-chosen colour palettes to accommodate colour-blind users being the major considerations. Tools like WebAIM make checking for type contrast relatively simple, and all wayfinding maps should aim to exceed the minimum contrast ratios required. Overall, this map needs to have its background colours lightened considerably to achieve better contrast.

To be honest, though I understand that the KC Streetcar branding uses blue almost exclusively, I would love to see a splash of a bright contrasting colour – perhaps yellow or orange – to draw the eye to important elements and make the map “pop”, as we say in the business.

The map itself is competently drawn, with nicely simplified streets and features: I particularly like the water/wave texture in the Missouri River. The Interstate and US Highway shields are disappointingly generic, and I’m not really in love with any of the point of interest icons, which don’t convincingly sell any idea of perspective, seem to be drawn in a few different styles and ultimately look somewhat amateur. Creating a cohesive and attractive set of point of interest icons for a map like this is difficult, time-consuming, and skilled illustration work and these aren’t quite there at the moment.

It’s worth noting that the KC Streetcar website also has a simplified version of this map – probably intended to be used as a strip map within cars – which has a plain white background and is much easier to read.

Our final word: A new streetcar extension – how exciting! This new map for the opening is superficially attractive and stylish, but more attention needs to be paid to accessibility and readability – especially if the map is going to be deployed at stations with varying levels and quality of light.

Source: KC Streetcar website