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How does a DC Metro station look anything like an LA Metro station? The only vaulted ceiling shaped station in LA I can think of is Hollywood/Highland? And it looks suuuuuper different.
Yeah, that's a very specific feature that does look different. But I don't think that most people have been to enough DC stations and LA stations to know that such a feature is only present on one system. Show someone that doesn't live in DC, but has ridden the Metro a photo of Metro Center and I bet the correctly guess that it's DC. But then show them a photo of Metro Center in LA and my guess is that they'd also think that was DC.
It's mostly due to them being about the same size, age, and cleanliness. People from DC often comment that our metro reminds them of theirs.
Similarly, I often notice LA stations standing in for DC in movies and on TV, but I don't think that most viewers are even slightly aware.
That's proposterous, have you been inside a station in DC? You could never mistake it for any other system, none I can think of in North America (in fact most of the world) look anything like the DC Metro.
I guess the trains themselves aren't that iconic, but the DC stations are absolutely unmistakable. Anyone in the world who has ever visited DC would know a shot of a DC Metro station instantly.
The thing is it literally is. Both Baltimore and LA sub in for DC metro in TV in movies and nobody really notices.
Now if someone tried to use the Atlanta Streetcar as the NOLA Trolleys people would know.
In addition SF, Chicago, Boston and New Orleans have a cultural tie to their Transit system that doesn’t exist in DC or LA or Atlanta. New Orleans reputation is deeply tied to its streetcar network. While LA people would ask “LA has a subway?”
here is a tour of Vancouver's Fully automated Skytrain network which is one of the most advanced systems on the continent, also many great views of Vancouver's multiple skylines
Last edited by Trojan1982; 03-19-2021 at 12:56 PM..
Yeah, that's a very specific feature that does look different. But I don't think that most people have been to enough DC stations and LA stations to know that such a feature is only present on one system. Show someone that doesn't live in DC, but has ridden the Metro a photo of Metro Center and I bet the correctly guess that it's DC. But then show them a photo of Metro Center in LA and my guess is that they'd also think that was DC.
It's mostly due to them being about the same size, age, and cleanliness. People from DC often comment that our metro reminds them of theirs.
Similarly, I often notice LA stations standing in for DC in movies and on TV, but I don't think that most viewers are even slightly aware.
That's not true. DC's subways stations are pretty unique even to people who have only used the system a handful of times. LA's Stations and Trains look more like Baltimore or Atlanta (Stations) than DC; DC & Marta train cars look similar.
I like cities, I happen to know what quite a few of the trains in different cities look like. I like the T and it's design, but it's not iconic. Most people couldn't tell you where it is without context.
I think I replied to that post last year, but of all the transit systems in NA Boston and NYC's cars probably look the least similar. NYC's are aggressively silver/gray (example) while Boston's are almost annoyingly colorful (example).
I am sorry my new england friends, but Boston's transit system is 100% not iconic.
I would venture in terms of entire transit systems being "iconic" only the MTA is. I believe that it's circle numbered design is absolutely the only one recognizable to any sizable portion of the population.
There are aspects of other systems I would deem iconic: Chicago L train and SF cable car system of the SFMTA.
If you like architecture, DC is the standout due to being from a completely different era than the other east coast cities.
I know it's crazy how opinions work. Glad you have your own, but respectively disagree.
That's not true. DC's subways stations are pretty unique even to people who have only used the system a handful of times. LA's Stations and Trains look more like Baltimore or Atlanta (Stations) than DC; DC & Marta train cars look similar.
The point is, if you've only used the DC metro a handful of times, chances are you've only seen a handful of stations and wouldn't know that they all look the same. I think that the most easily recognizable difference is that DC has lights on the platforms for when trains approach. They are the only system that has those afaik.
Agreed that LA trains are very similar to the trains in Baltimore and Miami as well. The manufacturers are all different, but I think that they're interchangeable to the point where the cars on each system could operate on the other two.
Iconic is a weird word to describe a transit system.
those hanging trams in Albuquerque
Nah. Transit is rarely iconic, but some are. The SF cable cars are an example. It's only weird that it's being used to describe transit that's not iconic, but we all have differing opinions on what those might be. I've never heard of hanging trams in Albuquerque, so for me they would not be iconic, although they may be unique.
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