Submitted by Matthew, who says:
Madison, WI just opened the first phase of our new BRT system, with new stations, new electric buses, and a new diagrams. I’d love to know what you think about the design, especially how the city handled differentiating the two types of station platform set ups. (I haven’t seen many diagrams with this feature!)
Transit Maps says:
This diagram is fairly simple and workmanlike: there’s nothing extraordinary about it, but it gets the job done. The canvas does feel a little empty to me and there’s some design language inconsistencies that could be looked at – why do some 90-degree corners get soft curves while others are sharp, for example – but it’s nothing too egregious.
The distinction between the rapid busway section versus the local, street-running sections is nicely done and very clear, and the addition of street names along the routes is helpful. I’d probably have liked to see the information that’s specific to the Segoe and Milwaukie Street stations as call-outs linked directly to those stations rather than as unrelated asterisked notes off to the side. As someone who’s not from Madison, it took me way too long to find these stations on the diagram to work out what these notes even referred to and why I should even care.
As for the distinction between center-running and side-running stations being shown graphically on the diagram… it’s nice, I guess? I don’t see it as totally critical information to show on a diagram, especially on a bus where the doors are only ever on one side of the vehicle – unlike a train where passengers could exit on either side so knowing where the platforms will be is actually advantageous. The depictions of the two station types are visually distinct and the legend explains them well, so why not – though I feel like it’s a problem that didn’t necessarily need to be solved at all!
EDIT: I’ve been corrected – the Madison BRT buses do in fact have boarding doors on both sides (I tried to research this before posting, but I apparently didn’t do a very good job!), so the distinction on the diagram is more useful than it seems at first glance.
Our final word: Nothing too exciting here, but works well enough. Perhaps feels a little unfinished.
Source: Madison Metro Transit website
Just an FYI that the rapid buses in Madison do have doors on both sides, so the distinction between the center and sidewalk stations is meaningful.
Interesting! I tried to so some research before I posted, but I apparently got it wrong. Thanks for the heads-up!
Any thoughts on the transfer opportunity markers? They seem quite unusual.
My own remark is that from purely looking at them map it is not immediately intuitive what they mean or whether those are just connections, recommended places for transfers, or places for timed transfers.
The three lines on the diagram are the only ones that use the fancy new platforms so transfer opportunities really means that there are other buses in the vicinity, sometimes right next to the new platforms, other times like a block or two away… kinda unclear to get dropped off somewhere and wander around til you find the other bus stop in my opinion.