Submitted by Chris, who says:
Sea-Tac has three inter-terminal people mover systems. They’ve introduced a new system map with color routing designations.
Transit Maps says:
Boy, this diagram makes really hard work out of something fairly simple. The colour-coding is fine if it helps people find the right train to get to their terminal, though I personally never had a problem with understanding that the North train loop took me to the North satellite terminal.
However, the diagram itself is unnecessarily vague about just about everything that could be useful to know, like: where are the stairs/escalators/elevators that move you between levels to get to the train platforms? And where exactly are the A and D gate train platforms located? They seem to float in some sort of limbo that’s not actually physically connected to the terminal on the diagram, which is just insane. In reality, they sit underneath the departures level about at about the point where the top layer narrows down, which might just be a handy detail to know if I’m using this diagram to find out how to get there.
All this ridiculousness seems to be in aid of keeping the two satellite loop lines (Blue and Green now, I guess) as visually simple as possible, but is it worth it if the rest of the diagram is such hard work? The drop shadow effect between the two levels of the airport is very pretty, but do we need it at all? It just seems to add detail and visual clutter where none is needed.
Our final word: A convoluted mess that’s probably going to stress airport travelers out more than they already are. Good luck using this to transfer between terminals in a hurry!
Source: Photo by Chris
I particularly like (hate) the person ideogram levitating above some two-direction arrows where the blue/yellow and green/yellow lines intersect. Not sure if that’s just supposed to show that it’s walkable, that there are stairs, that it’s an elevator, that someone will beam you up, or what.
Also why go to the trouble of labeling things like “B Gates Station” when there’s a giant icon with “B Gates” right next to it? What else would that station be?
Seriously, this map makes no sense. I remember once being at SEA and trying to figure out the system. I gave up and just walked forever. That at least was easy to understand. There were no directions at the airport (wayfinding wasn’t that great in general in Seattle), and this map sure as hell doesn’t help. I’ve been reading transit maps for years and I have no idea what to make of some of this. Surely someone who studied cartography couldn’t have made this rubbish?