Metro Transit Has Issues
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Metro_Transit_articulated.jpg
Okay… so last semester on my first day of volunteering at MNIC, I had quite the experience. It all started when I decided not to reply to the director’s email that said to let her know if I needed directions. I figured I had it all under control, knowing that I have the metro-transit website where I can find bus directions in a matter of seconds. So, about a half hour before the bus was supposed to come, I looked up my directions online. It came up with three different options. I guess that’s kinda nice cause it allows you to choose which one was the most convenient. Not wanting to spend too much time trying to figure out which route to take, I decided to go with the one that picked me up in front of Coffman. Assuming that it would be heading in the direction of the school where I was going, I got on the bus on the Coffman side of Washington Avenue. Just to make sure, though, I asked the bus driver if I was on the right side of the road to be getting to Hennepin avenue. He said no, and that I should be on the other side. Trusting that he knew what he was talking about even though it seemed totally wrong that I should be going the opposite direction of the school I was trying to get to, I took his advice and ran over the bridge to the other side of the road. I didn’t want to miss that bus. I made it just in time, quickly hopped on, and made sure to ask the bus driver if I was on the right bus to get to Hennepin. He said yes. But it just didn’t seem right. Why would I be traveling in the opposite direction? I went with my instinct and got off on the other side of the Wash. Ave. bridge. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a plan and was now stuck on the wrong side of the bridge. I called my dad, but he had no idea how the bus system worked. He tried to help me out by looking up online where I should be going. I finally decided to go with the last option on my list of three choices. But that required me to get over to Jones hall and Pleasant Street. I was on the complete opposite side of campus. I walked over to the bus stop on the other side of the street and took the campus connector back to the East Bank. Unfortunately, I took the limited stop campus connector (I didn’t know there was a difference). So… it went a couple blocks past Coffman, which then required me to backtrack those couple of blocks, taking away from my precious time. I had to make it to the bus at 1:00PM (By the way, my tutoring started at 1:30). By that point, I knew I was going to miss the bus because it was already 12:55. I walked as fast as I could but I didn’t get to the stop until 1:10. I looked at the schedule and realized the next bus didn’t come until 1:30. So I waited. Finally, it came, and I hopped on, thinking everything was going to be all right. My schedule I had printed off said to get off on 33rd Street (or avenue, I can’t remember). I noticed that the bus driver was calling out the names of the streets, so, although I was trying to watch the streets, I was thankful I could rely on the bus driver to call out my street name. For some reason, she never did call out my street. She had called all the other ones but not mine. I realized this when I looked out the window and saw the bus pass through 33rd street. I immediately pulled the cord, but it was too late. The bus didn’t stop for another 2 or 3 blocks, which I then had to backtrack. I walked back to 33rd street, which I found out wasn’t even a street. It looked like some sort of alleyway that passed through the backyards of some businesses. Kind of questionable to me… I didn’t want to risk it. So I kept walking until I found the first normal street. Meanwhile, I stepped in something squishy. I thought for sure it was dog poop, but I looked down and it was even worse. It was a dead bird or some sort of dead animal, a mixture of blood and guts. And it had splattered on my bare foot. EWWW!! What a way to top off my already bad day. Anyways, I did finally find my school, but I got there at about 2:10 (I had initially left at 12:30). I found out if I had taken the Hennepin way, I would have gotten there eventually, but it was completely out of the way and would have taken a half hour or 45 minutes extra. I also found out that I’m supposed to get off on 29th avenue (which is NOT what the website told me).
So, what did I learn from this? I learned that either I have some issues with my directional skills or the bus system has some issues with the design of it’s maps and signage, or maybe a little of both. Or maybe it’s because I have no experience with the bus system, that I have so much trouble with it. But should it really be this hard to figure out? Isn’t it meant to be used by the average person? I would say I am at least average. And if I can’t figure out how to use it, I’m sure there are other people out there who are having just as much trouble as I am.
So here are some of the problems with design of the metro transit bus system maps/directions/signage:
1. The online maps/directions do not tell you what side of the road you have to board the bus.
Ex:
COFFMAN UNION to MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ARTS
ITINERARY #1
Walk 0.2 mile NW from COFFMAN UNION to
Depart: WASHINGTON AV SE & COFFMAN UNION At 08:36 PM
Route: 2 Franklin Av / To Hennepin
Arrive: FRANKLIN AV E & 3 AV S At 08:55 PM
Walk 0.3 mile S to MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ARTS
COFFMAN UNION to TARGET MINNEAPOLIS DOWNTOWN
ITINERARY #2
Walk N from COFFMAN UNION to
Depart: WASHINGTON AV SE & COFFMAN UNION At 09:00 PM
Route: 2C FRANKLIN AV / TO CENTRAL / U OF M
Arrive: 4 ST SE & 15 AV SE At 09:06 PM
Walk 0.2 mile S to JONES HALL
You see here two different routes, one heading East and one heading West. However, neither of them say which side of the road to board the bus. Unfortunately, this becomes a problem for people like me, who have no sense of direction and do not know which way they are headed. (And sometimes you have to board the bus one way in order to go the other way.) I think that an easy way to fix this is to simply state which side of the street to get on, and to make that clear in these directions.
2. The directions are not clear which way is the easiest way to get to where you are going. They give plenty of options, but some are just not at all practical.
Ex:
COFFMAN UNION to 300 INDUSTRIAL BLVD
ITINERARY #1
Walk N from COFFMAN UNION to
Depart: WASHINGTON AV SE & COFFMAN UNION At 09:00 PM
Route: 2C FRANKLIN AV / TO CENTRAL / U OF M
Arrive: 4 ST SE & 15 AV SE At 09:06 PM
Transfer to
Depart: 15 AV SE & 4 ST SE At 09:20 PM
Route: 3A COMO AV / DWTN ST PAUL / VIA MRYLAND
Arrive: COMO AV SE & 33 AV SE At 09:27 PM
Walk 0.4 mile NW to 300 INDUSTRIAL BLVD
Total Trip Time:
27 minutes
ITINERARY #2
Walk N from COFFMAN UNION to
Depart: WASHINGTON AV SE & COFFMAN UNION At 09:00 PM
Route: 2C FRANKLIN AV / TO CENTRAL / U OF M
Arrive: 4 ST SE & 15 AV SE At 09:06 PM
Transfer to
Depart: 15 AV SE & 4 ST SE At 09:50 PM
Route: 3B COMO AV/DWTN ST PAUL/VIA FRONT AV
Arrive: COMO AV SE & 33 AV SE At 09:57 PM
Walk 0.4 mile NW to 300 INDUSTRIAL BLVD
Total Trip Time:
57 minutes
ITINERARY #3
Walk N from COFFMAN UNION to
Depart: WASHINGTON AV SE & COFFMAN UNION At 08:55 PM
Route: 16 UNIV AV / ST PAUL
Arrive: UNIVERSITY AV & RICE ST At 09:25 PM
Transfer to
Depart: RICE ST & UNIVERSITY AV At 09:43 PM
Route: 3A COMO-MRYLAND/DWTN MPLS/TO HENNEPIN
Arrive: COMO AV SE & 33 AV SE At 10:07 PM
Walk 0.4 mile NW to 300 INDUSTRIAL BLVD
Total Trip Time:
72 minutes
This is what came up when I said I wanted directions to get to MNIC (I did this just now). And actually, the option from Jones Hall didn’t even come up. These options all take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and 20 minutes (it only takes me 20 minutes now that I know what I’m doing).
This shows me that their website has a very poor design, and, unfortunately, this causes some big issues and problems in their communication of directions.
And I want to know why somebody would even want to take the 72 minute busride when there is the option of taking a 27 minute one (according to these results). They shouldn’t even have to put up this option. It just makes the whole thing more complicated.
3. There are no signs or any signals on the bus as to what street you are on, other than the unreliable bus drivers calling out the street names. Unless you are familiar with the area (which most first-timers aren’t), there is no way to find which street you are getting off at unless you are really good at reading street signs from a distance. Even then, if you end up sitting in a bad spot where somebody’s head is in the way, or you sit behind the bus driver where there is a wall in the way, then you are in really big trouble. And even if you have a map, you may not be able to read the names of the streets you are passing. I may suggest putting a screen up in the front of the bus that shows a map or writes out the names of the streets that the bus is approaching. This would give people warning to when their street is coming up and would minimize/remove confusion in figuring out directions.
4. The directions given online are not always true. They sometimes give the wrong street name. An example of this is when they told me to get off on 33rd Ave, and 33rd Avenue wasn’t even a real street. If you look closely at this satellite map, you can see 33rd avenue and 29th avenue. 29th avenue is a real street, while 33rd avenue doesn’t even have street markings on it. It is the alleyway for these industrial centers and obviously not a walkway. I don’t know if I would consider this giving of bad directions a design issue, but it definitely is a problem, and somebody in the design field could fix it if they were to just put a visible map or some visual aid along with the directions showing people exactly what I’m showing you in the map. This will allow people to make sure that they aren’t getting faulty directions.