For the first time in almost four decades, Metro’s iconic map is undergoing a facelift. But the draft version of its new look is missing something: the Dulles line.
(Chat with a Metro executive about the new map at 10 a.m. ET.)
Metro plans to roll out a new map designed by New Yorker Lance Wyman in June 2012.
The new, improved Adams Morgan
The first phase of the Dulles line is shown, but not the full extension, which will have 23 miles of track and 11 stations and stretch from Tysons Corner to Dulles International Airport and Loudoun County. Part of the problem is that there has been no official decision on what to call the new rail line.
The Dulles line has been called the Silver Line, but Metro officials and the map designer — Lance Wyman of New York — are not sold on the grayish color.
Wyman helped design the original map for the 35-year-old Metro system and was brought back this year to help give the map a makeover to show the new rail line to Dulles and other service changes.
This time, Wyman wants to spice up the map with a color that he calls “cherry blossom.”
He has told Metro that he wants to show the rail line to Dulles on the redesigned map as a “cool, pale pink” similar to the color of the District’s well-known cherry tree blossoms at the Tidal Basin. Never mind that the famous location of the trees is miles away from Northern Virginia’s extended rail line.
Wyman said he thinks the cherry blossom color for the Dulles line sends a “welcome to visitors from Dulles” to the heart of Washington.
Metro officials are not so sure. They said they are keeping an open mind about pink and want to see what riders have to say. In an online survey that includes a draft version of the redesigned map, the transit agency asks riders for a Dulles line color preference: The choices are silver, orange or “a color other than silver or orange.”
On the draft map, a few white dots and gray slash marks indicate the first part of the Dulles line, which will run from East Falls Church to the eastern edge of Reston.
But one Metro expert said showing only part of the Dulles line makes the map incomplete.
“The original 1976 map was created so that it was going to have room to grow,” said Zachary M. Schrag, associate professor of history at George Mason University and author of “The Great Society Subway,” a history of the Washington area’s Metro system. “It may do well for a year, but it doesn’t have a space carved out for adding the Dulles line. This map doesn’t have room to grow.”
Metro officials said they decided not to show more of the Dulles line in the draft version because they think they still have time. They plan to offer one version of the redesigned map in June and then another that will show more of the Dulles line before the first phase opens in late 2013. Construction on the second phase has not started.
“This is meant to be a transition map,” said Barbara Richardson, assistant general manager of customer service, communications and marketing for Metro. “The idea is to keep it simple. Keep it clean.”
Riders also expressed concerns that they did not want too much change, or at least not all at once. Some of the 2,400 customers the agency surveyed online and talked to in focus groups said they did not think there was a need to “show Dulles too soon,” and it could be confusing, according to Richardson.
Loading...
Comments