A postscript to my posting last week about the long-promotional-special interest-station names on the Metro: today an article appeared in the Washington Post addressing this. It turns out that Metro has now approved three of the ridiculous name changes:
The yet-to-be-opened New York Avenue Station on the Red Line will now be called the New York Avenue-Florida Avenue-Gallaudet U. Station.
The Rhode Island Avenue Station has been reborn as the Rhode Island Avenue-Brentwood Station, and the Archives-Navy Memorial stop will henceforth be called the Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter Station.
… In recent years, Metro has added names to the Vienna, Dunn Loring, West Falls Church, Ballston, Grosvenor, Woodley Park, U Street, Waterfront and Mount Vernon Square stations. GMU, shorthand for George Mason University, was added to two Virginia stations.
Bulked-up names might please directors of war memorials and universities, but they annoy plenty of taxpayers and transit riders.
“College students who do not know which station to use without seeing their college’s name embedded in the station name should not be going to college,” said Michael Schade, a District activist who recently took a swipe at Metro in his electronic newsletter about development. ” . . . People do not use long names.”
… Indeed, said S.B.Master, who runs a California firm that helps clients such as Disney come up with names and brands. “When names get too long, they cease to be useful,” she said. “People will find a way not to use these names. . . . They’ll use shorthand or initials, or it will evolve back to what it was before, so very little or nothing will be accomplished except money spent on new signage.”
To change a station name, the local jurisdiction in which the station sits must petition the Metro board and pay for the new signs and maps. In the case of the name changes for the three D.C. stations, the city is paying $211,000.
Transit officials say politics has fueled the trend toward longer names. Business interests and District officials have dubbed the area around Seventh Street NW and Constitution Avenue the “Penn Quarter” and lobbied to add the name to the Archives-Navy Memorial Station. The president of Gallaudet University campaigned to add the school’s name to the New York Avenue Station.
… D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), who represents the District on the Metro board, called the pattern of beefing up station names “local empowerment.”
Graham sponsored the change that created the longest station name in the system: U Street-Cardozo-African American Civil War Memorial Station, which has to be abbreviated to fit on station signs.
