67thave
Member
As many of us are aware, transit publicity standards vary from nation to nation, and even from city to city. Some places which should have high quality information available simply do not, while others surprise in not just the quality, but in the distribution, of maps, timetables, and other brochures. What are some of your best and worst experiences regarding these?
For me, a couple of the best include:
Frankfurt am Main - Even though some German cities are beginning to abandon printed timetables, the vast majority still publish them, particularly in book format. Frankfurt not only publishes its timetables in a comprehensive book totaling roughly 1600 pages, but the book (at least from my experience back in 2019) is easy to come by, being available for purchase at several sales outlets throughout the city. In addition, line-specific timetable brochures are also published for each individual route, and these are distributed very well throughout the city, to the point that the chain hotel I was staying at had ones for at least five different routes in stock.
Washington, DC - As far as distribution goes, Washington, DC probably has the most easily available transit publicity of any major US city. WMATA is quite good at making sure that each metro station has a rack full of timetables for the buses serving that station (WMATA or otherwise - DC has several different suburban bus companies), as well as at least one of the four area transit maps. In addition, in addition to the main sales office at Metro Center (which is centrally located), WMATA partners with other communities in the DC area regarding the operation of enquiry offices, most notably Arlington County in Virginia.
Now, for a couple of the worst:
New York City - While this might be slightly cheating, New York City is horrible at providing information to the public. While the printed subway map is relatively easy to find and chances are that tracking down the borough-specific bus maps at subway stations will yield results, obtaining individual bus timetable leaflets (at least pre-pandemic - rumor on the street is that the MTA got rid of them to save money) required either hopping on and off buses from a specific depot and hoping that they had the route you needed available on board, or going to the MTA's main customer service center tucked away on a side street in Lower Manhattan (which has limited hours and functions primarily as a place to fill out paperwork for reduced-fare benefits) and hoping that they had the route you needed in stock behind the counter (which required waiting on line, sometimes for over an hour - at least from personal experience).
Mississauga, Ontario - The local transit company's website is difficult to navigate, and printed "timetables" (traditionally, Mississauga was one of the few places in North America which eschewed exact timings for Spanish-style "frequency guides") for this suburban city of 800,000 have not existed since 2004, despite most of the bus routes having relatively low frequencies. The only printed information available is a mediocre $2 map available only at the city's main transit center.
For me, a couple of the best include:
Frankfurt am Main - Even though some German cities are beginning to abandon printed timetables, the vast majority still publish them, particularly in book format. Frankfurt not only publishes its timetables in a comprehensive book totaling roughly 1600 pages, but the book (at least from my experience back in 2019) is easy to come by, being available for purchase at several sales outlets throughout the city. In addition, line-specific timetable brochures are also published for each individual route, and these are distributed very well throughout the city, to the point that the chain hotel I was staying at had ones for at least five different routes in stock.
Washington, DC - As far as distribution goes, Washington, DC probably has the most easily available transit publicity of any major US city. WMATA is quite good at making sure that each metro station has a rack full of timetables for the buses serving that station (WMATA or otherwise - DC has several different suburban bus companies), as well as at least one of the four area transit maps. In addition, in addition to the main sales office at Metro Center (which is centrally located), WMATA partners with other communities in the DC area regarding the operation of enquiry offices, most notably Arlington County in Virginia.
Now, for a couple of the worst:
New York City - While this might be slightly cheating, New York City is horrible at providing information to the public. While the printed subway map is relatively easy to find and chances are that tracking down the borough-specific bus maps at subway stations will yield results, obtaining individual bus timetable leaflets (at least pre-pandemic - rumor on the street is that the MTA got rid of them to save money) required either hopping on and off buses from a specific depot and hoping that they had the route you needed available on board, or going to the MTA's main customer service center tucked away on a side street in Lower Manhattan (which has limited hours and functions primarily as a place to fill out paperwork for reduced-fare benefits) and hoping that they had the route you needed in stock behind the counter (which required waiting on line, sometimes for over an hour - at least from personal experience).
Mississauga, Ontario - The local transit company's website is difficult to navigate, and printed "timetables" (traditionally, Mississauga was one of the few places in North America which eschewed exact timings for Spanish-style "frequency guides") for this suburban city of 800,000 have not existed since 2004, despite most of the bus routes having relatively low frequencies. The only printed information available is a mediocre $2 map available only at the city's main transit center.
