The time has come to consider new Metrorail station names! On Thursday the WMATA board will decide what names to change and what to keep (hopefully minus a lunch of pheasant under glass). In a typically detailed post, Greater Greater Washington explains the options and allows readers to vote on their favorites:
For the map, based on survey results, WMATA staff and designer Lance Wyman decided to color the Dulles line Silver, use dashed yellow and orange lines at the ends to denote rush hour-only service, and add hours of operation to the map. Different symbols for short turn stations confused riders and are gone from this version.
The recommendation would add Old Town as a subtitle to King Street, and Ballpark to Navy Yard once DC commits funding. Further, they recommend changing Waterfront-SEU to just Waterfront, not adding Arena Stage as requested. Suggested changes to Smithsonian, New York Ave-Florida Ave-Gallaudet U, and Forest Glen are also on the table, but staff are not endorsing those changes.
Meanwhile, Jon Hendel at TBD gets all philosophical:
A good name makes or breaks a place. Proust talked about the “place-name” as a concept that evoked something much deeper than the casual way we’d regard a mere address; geography and label act together to create the identity of a given place in our minds and memories. Vote on these now and share your own thoughts — the impact could last for decades.
It’s true. A lot of the changes seem to be common sense and useful, though some, like changing New York Ave-Florida Ave-Gallaudet U to NoMa/Gallaudet U seem more aspirational than functional (at least for non-residents of the area) at this point in time.