Chicago Transit Observations

October 1st, 2007 at 11:34 pm

I’ll admit to being a bit of a public transit nerd. A daily commuter on SF Muni, I delight in observing the ways in which the system works and doesn’t work from an interaction design standpoint. A recent trip to Chicago (my first) gave me an opportunity to explore and experience a new system with fresh eyes. Along the way I jotted down a few notes and took some photos with my mobile phone.

Airport to Subway

Upon touching down at Midway my first task was to find my way to the “L”. Airport signage was clear early on but became sparse as I left the main part of the terminal. Passing through several empty rooms I became unsure of whether or not I had gone astray until a bold orange line appeared on the floor guiding me to the station. Perhaps the line could be extended right into the terminal?

Tickets, please

I noticed a few things at the ticket kiosk, the first being the rather large section up top devoted to instructions. There’s quite a bit of text up there that’s rendered fairly small and it’s positioned high enough that I wonder if everyone who could benefit from such thorough instructions could actually read them.

Getting a ticket went smoothly enough - select an action, insert money (it accepts $2 bills oddly enough) and press the “Vend” button… really hard. The amount of force required and the feel of the button definitely caught my attention. There was virtually no give to the button, mechanically. It made me wonder if the tactile design of the button was deliberate, but if so why? Though I visited in the fall, I wondered how it feels to use the machine with heavily gloved hands during Chicago’s brutal winter months.

Navigating underground

In several of the stops downtown I came across large panoramic images of the street view above, customized for each exit of the station. A really fantastic idea,
and one that I wish SF Muni would duplicate. There were also well placed bits of wayfinding signage placed at the bottom of station escalators as well. Handy.

Traveling by ear

CTA recordings and announcements were informative and clear, which is more than I’m used to when riding Muni in San Francisco. Announcements included which line you are riding, the name and transfers available at the next station, and on which side the doors will open. Upon exiting the train on elevated platforms the conductor would announce to waiting passengers the line color of the next arriving train. Several times when the train was held up due to construction the conductor announced the reason the for the delay and an estimate for when we would be moving again. Refreshing! Delays are never explained when riding Muni, which only further aggravates my fellow captive passengers.

Hang-ups

No trip to a new city is completely confusion free. Among the times I felt disoriented and cast adrift was the first time I had to transfer from an elevated station to the subway. I wandered around confused for a few minutes searching for a transfer corridor before I realized I had to completely exit the station and re-enter the subway a half block away. Later in the week I was trying to transfer to a rush hour only express train and for a moment thought the train I was waiting for would bypass the stop (the duration of rush hour schedules was unclear).

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