{"id":661,"date":"2009-10-12T00:09:40","date_gmt":"2009-10-12T04:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cityblock.wordpress.com\/?p=661"},"modified":"2009-10-12T00:09:40","modified_gmt":"2009-10-12T04:09:40","slug":"americas-metro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alexblock.net\/blog\/2009\/10\/12\/americas-metro\/","title":{"rendered":"America&#039;s Metro"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-683\" title=\"2008_0109_newmetro1\" src=\"http:\/\/cityblock.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/10\/2008_0109_newmetro1.jpg?resize=200%2C151\" alt=\"2008_0109_newmetro1\" width=\"200\" height=\"151\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alexblock.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/2008_0109_newmetro1.jpg?w=385&amp;ssl=1 385w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alexblock.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/2008_0109_newmetro1.jpg?resize=300%2C226&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Last week, GGW&#8217;s daily links thread noted Metro&#8217;s consideration of moving to <a href=\"http:\/\/greatergreaterwashington.org\/post.cgi?id=3713\">automated station announcements<\/a> within trains, instead of the current announcements made by train operators.\u00a0 The link included a look back to when Metro&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Washington_Metro_rolling_stock#7000-Series\">7000 series railcars<\/a> were first announced, more than a year and a half ago.<\/p>\n<p>Automated announcements are one of those things that make it easy for those unfamiliar with the system to navigate it.\u00a0\u00a0 I can&#8217;t think of anyone saying this would be a bad thing, but it certainly removes a bit of the local flavor from the system.\u00a0 DCist <a href=\"http:\/\/dcist.com\/2008\/01\/the_future_of_m_1.php\">noted this<\/a> last January, when the new car designs were initially revealed:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>Automated station announcements. So no more &#8220;Judishuwary Square&#8221;.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This kind of local flavor is a small sacrifice in favor of greatly improved usability for most riders.\u00a0 The more troubling aspect of the new car design, however, isn&#8217;t the loss of local character, but the bizarre rejection of Metro&#8217;s local connections.<\/p>\n<p>As borne out by the DCist comments, perhaps the single most objectionable piece of the 7000 series design was the addition of the new &#8220;America&#8217;s Metro&#8221; logo.\u00a0 Some see it as an egregious example of <a href=\"http:\/\/outtacontext.com\/life\/archive\/000423.shtml\">poor graphic design<\/a> (and it is).\u00a0 More troubling, however, is the fact that Metro is a local asset with a federal role.<\/p>\n<p>Frankly, this isn&#8217;t America&#8217;s Metro.\u00a0 It&#8217;s DC&#8217;s Metro.\u00a0 Perhaps this logo was an olive branch to the Feds as a means to conjure up support in Congress.\u00a0 However, the Metro is one of DC&#8217;s federal investments that&#8217;s paid tremendous dividends to the day to day life of the city&#8217;s residents.<\/p>\n<p>The implications for Metro&#8217;s identity aren&#8217;t too promising, either.\u00a0 Metro&#8217;s always had a strong, modern brand &#8211; thanks to the architecture, the unity within the system&#8217;s design, and the brand itself.\u00a0 Since its creation, WMATA hasn&#8217;t always been the best steward of that design legacy.\u00a0 However, the new <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/awiseman\/3491069959\/\">bus<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/elswifterino\/3381879811\/\">liveries<\/a> are promising and functional &#8211; hopefully this logo will be dropped from the final design for the 7000 series.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 450px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/graphic\/2008\/01\/11\/GR2008011100608.html\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/media3.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/graphic\/2008\/01\/11\/GR2008011100608.jpg?resize=440%2C487\" alt=\"Washington Post Newsgraphic on 7000 series\" width=\"440\" height=\"487\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Washington Post Newsgraphic on 7000 series<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Technically, the 7000 series should be a welcome addition to Metro&#8217;s fleet.\u00a0 However, let&#8217;s not sacrifice the system&#8217;s visual integrity.\u00a0 Thankfully, those seat color schemes have not yet been decided.<\/p>\n<p>These are not minor details, they matter.\u00a0 Metro has bigger problems these days, to be sure.\u00a0 That&#8217;s no excuse, however, to lower standards.<\/p>\n<p><em>Cross-posted at <a href=\"http:\/\/greatergreaterwashington.org\/post.cgi?id=3764\">Greater Greater Washington<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, GGW&#8217;s daily links thread noted Metro&#8217;s consideration of moving to automated station announcements within trains, instead of the current announcements made by train operators.\u00a0 The link included a look back to when Metro&#8217;s 7000 series railcars were first announced, more than a year and a half ago. Automated announcements are one of those [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dc","category-metro"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pHcGQ-aF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexblock.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexblock.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexblock.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexblock.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexblock.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexblock.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexblock.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexblock.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexblock.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}