Prepared for:
Transit Cooperative Research Program
Transportation Research Board
The National Academies
This work was sponsored by the
Federal Transit Administration (FTA)
and conducted in the
Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP).
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
•Kansas
Metro, Houston, Texas
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
•TriMet,
Suncoast Transit Authority, St. Petersburg, Florida
Portland, Oregon
•RideConnection,
•Tuscaloosa
Portland, Oregon
City Transit, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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.
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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
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.
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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”).
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.”
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.
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.).
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.