Using Pictograms To Make Transit Easier To Navigate

for Customers with Communication BarriersPrepared for:

Transit Cooperative Research ProgramTransportation Research Board

The National Academies

This work was sponsored by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and conducted in theTransit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP).

Sponsor

The research team is grateful to the professionals and organizations that participated in interviews and conducted pilot tests of the pictograms. These include drivers/operators and staff from the following: •Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority, Des Moines, Iowa •Houston Metro, Houston, Texas •Kansas City Area Transportation Authority, Kansas City, Missouri •Kentucky Department for Public Health, Frankfort, Kentucky. •New York City Transit, New York, New York•New York City Department of Education, Travel Training Office,

New York, New York •Pinnellas Suncoast Transit Authority, St. Petersburg, Florida •TriMet, Portland, Oregon•RideConnection, Portland, Oregon •Tuscaloosa City Transit, Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Acknowledgments

• Pictograms are picture-based communication tools that use illustrations with few or no words to communicate critical information.

• Emergency information must be more concise and compelling than normal.

• Studies in health care show pictograms help bridge communication gaps. Universal Health Symbols (UHS) project released 55 tested pictograms for use by healthcare institutions.

• Interest in transportation-related pictograms has largely focused on way finding and locations.

Pictograms

• This study appears to be the first to explore whether transit riders in an emergency could and would respond to picture-based directions from a driver.

• Can pictograms be effective for people with communication challenges to aid in understanding emergency information and directions in a transit emergency?

Current Study

• Three components:◦ literature review; ◦ primary research with bus drivers and

representatives of transit agencies and agencies serving vulnerable populations;

◦ development and testing of pictograms Research team developed and tested variations

on series of pictograms intended for use in a scenario where a bus was stopped.

Study Approach

• Study was not directed at life-threatening emergencies (fire, bomb threats) that require quick evacuation.

• Projected scenario focused on flood event, but included directions for any event that would◦ cause a bus to be stopped, ◦ have various further complications:

delay change in route arrival of help for passengers if bus disabled.

Study Focus

Literature review examined:• pictographs (information about objects or physical

circumstances);• ideographs (information about concepts or behavior); and• combinations of the two (e.g., a human figure on a step

expresses “Step Up” or “Step Down,” or, by extension, “Watch Your Step.”)

Primary research engaged: • bus drivers and operators to identify critical messages;• experts who work with or serve people with

communication challenges; and • end users, passengers with communication challenges.

Methodology

• Bus transit was selected for the limited scope of this study, but conclusions reached have applicability to other transit modes as well.

• Four transit agencies and their partner community service providers conducted pilot tests inside parked buses to assess a set of 10 original pictograms designed to capture driver-identified messages.– Portland, OR– Kansas City, MO– St. Petersburg, FL– New York, NY

Methodology cont.

End users included a mix of people who had two or more of these characteristics:

• were native English speakers; • spoke little or no English;• were deaf or hard of hearing or had cognitive, sensory,

or physical disabilities;• were over the age of 65; • were new to the transit system; or• were caregivers, companions or interpreters for people

with communication challenges.

End Users

• Images were tested with and without one or two explanatory words below the image. Both ways, images with material elements were most understandable (e.g., “Turn Off Electronics,” “Stay In Your Seat”).

• Images more difficult to decipher contained ideas or abstractions (e.g. “Help Is Coming”) or an emotional state (e.g., “Stay Calm”).

Things Easier Than Ideas

Study showed that pictograms can be effective as a part of communication with transit riders.Substantial study must be done to identify and test images sufficiently universal to convey messages that transit drivers consider most important.Even so, drivers in study would have begun to use pilot pictograms right away: “Just to have something to help us communicate better.”

Summary Conclusion

Driver interviews revealed MOST transit passengers have communication barriers because they are using digital devices, usually with headphones or ear buds.

• One driver estimated 95 percent of people who ride her routes have ear devices in use.

• Passengers tuned into personal electronics are effectively deaf or hard-of-hearing.

• Visual directions would help drivers get all passengers’ attention and communicate to them simple directions and basic information.

Unexpected Finding

1. Picture-based communication with bus transit riders is necessary, especially in emergencies, but also in ordinary travel, because many bus passengers are “incommunicado.” They are isolated voluntarily by digital devices or cultural behaviors, or involuntarily, because of language, disability, or distraction (care-giving, pestering by other passengers, etc.).

Ten Important Results

2. Pictograms are useful for conveying authority. People responded to images and reported that seeing pictograms held up by a driver would focus their attention. All participants indicated they would do as the directions in a pictogram told them (if they could understand it).

Ten Important Results

3. Pictograms connected to material facts or objects are easiest for most people to grasp.

4. Pictograms that give directions about objects or persons (e.g., headphones, the driver, “Stay In Your Seat”) are mostly well understood.

Ten Important Results

5. Pictograms that give directions about simple behaviors without a material object are more difficult to understand (e.g. “Listen”), but more people grasped them than not.

6. Pictograms about an idea (“Help Is Coming”) or an emotional state (“Stay Calm”) are the least understood.

Ten Important Results

7. Bus drivers want effective communication tools and would welcome pictograms as useful.

8. Passengers want direction, especially in emergencies. Participants reported desire for simple pictures to explain aspects of public transit in general.

Ten Important Results

9. Pictograms that are immediately understandable are a valuable tool. Any that are difficult for most people to decipher increase confusion and could make an emergency situation worse. No pictograms should be put into use without careful testing. Substantial research is needed to take the idea of using pictograms for transportation into effective reality.

Ten Important Results

10. Previous familiarity with the images would be helpful to passengers.

Flyers, signs or other educational tools to familiarize passengers with images that would be used in emergencies would be important for transit agencies to provide their publics.

Ten Important Results

Pictogram Standardization

Standardization of a new graphical symbol is a process to validate it against relevant design criteria and then accept it as a standard and publish it.

Standardization or some type of formal accreditation attesting to the universality as well as utility of tested pictograms would have value.

The most likely body through which pictograms might be accredited is the American National Standards Institute (ANSI 2012).

1. Refine the pictograms tested in this study.• Consult more passengers, drivers, transit

personnel and representatives of agencies that serve people with functional needs

• Test revised images with a broader audience, representing different community locales and sizes from those used in this study

Three Research Recommendations

These piloted pictograms are closest to being ready to use: •Look At Me •Turn Off Electronics•Listen •Follow Me •Stay Seated •Danger Images for Delay and Change in Route need more work, but they appear to be ones that could be made functional. Stay Calm and Help is Coming were the least understood and seem the least likely to be successful as pictograms.

2. Study the impact personal listening devices make on the communication circumstances in bus transit. Accommodating passengers’ use of devices and still maintaining order, safety and customer connection presents a service challenge for transit agencies that pictograms could help address.

Three Research Recommendations

3. Research communication tools in use currently by transit agencies, with agency assessments of effectiveness. Drivers reported they need every communication tool available to address the diverse ridership they now serve. A compendium of what is currently in use or is planned (or tried and abandoned) would be very valuable to the industry.

Three Research Recommendations

Pictograms Tested