The bus stop we saw yesterday was in dire need of a makeover. This light rail station is doing a lot better. It has nice wide sidewalks leading to it, benches and shelter, and trains every 6 minutes for most of the day. But it turns out that some of the same things missing at the bus stop are missing here, too.

1. Schedule information. When’s the last train of the day? When’s the first train? How often do the trains run? Which station does the number 2 bus connect to? All really good questions. But you can’t find the answers here. METRO actually prints posters with all this information. They’re posted at only 3 stations, though, and only in the bus waiting areas, not the station platforms.

2. Next train information. There are sensors embedded in the trackways. METRO can tell where every train is at every time. There are data links between stations and the central control centers. There are LED displays at the stations. And yet the best way to tell if a train is coming soon is to lean over the track and peer into the distance.

Here’s how Washington METRO does it:

Knowing that there’s another train in 3 minutes makes me feel a lot better about just barely missing the one you see here. And yesterday, I linked to San Francisco MUNI’s online realtime map of its trains:

why not here?

3. Wayfinding. There are maps at each station of the surroundings. That’s good. But where do I catch the bus? The maps on the trains list 39 buses that connect at this station. But there’s nothing to tell a passenger where to find the bus stop. At some stations, there is more information: the Downtown stations have maps on the sidewalks showing not just major landmarks but restaurants and office buildings. And the Museum District station has a neat sign post pointing the way to the museums. Neither of those were placed by METRO. But perhaps they should have been, at all the stations.

Like I said yesterday, this isn’t rocket science. Everything on this list has been done elsewhere, and two of the three don’t even require technology. But these things matter. 40,000 people a day ride these trains. If we make every one of their trips a little easier — and save a few of them from wandering around puzzled for 10 minutes — we’ve made a big difference.

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