I suppose this problem isn’t specific to SoundTransit or KC Metro, but why are the posted station area maps so worthless? We rode the light rail to Columbia City (some friends recently moved there). This was our first visit and you would think they’d want to advertise major points of interest nearby. If we had not come armed with a map, we’d not have known we were within a couple blocks of a public library branch, two parks, a cultural center, and National Historic District, not to mention all the nearby businesses.
Even relatively sophisticated online tools like walkscore do quite a poor job of labeling the points they show. Other entries in this contest like Lost in Seattle have handy info like hours but use dated web technology. You can get all this from the nicer tourist walking maps of downtown.
You might also look into OpenStreetMap, an open-source, community-based mapping project. People around the stations can add whatever points of interest they think are appropriate. OSM is still relatively new to the US, although I have seen some activity showing up in Seattle. Coding protocols and standards evolve through a collaborative process, and there is one under review now that would enable adding a URL to points of interest so that the viewer could click on the POI and go to its website.
Ed Hillsman
Center for Urban Transportation Research
University of South Florida
Hey, that is a pretty nice map of Columbia City. It even has trails through the parks. I’d heard of it before but forgot about it. There’s also the GeoServer used to build TriMet’s new Interactive Map, but as far as I know there’s no Seattle version.