Comparative Subway Systems 101
It’s really strange to observe BART as compared to the Moscow Metro.
BART seems to be very utilitarian, unfriendly to the visitor. The map is a bit confusing (where are the stations exactly? the lines cover up quite a swath of the city), the lines are confusing (why are there four different lines going in the same direction over the same track in the city?). It’s even less clear which lines the trains are actually from, when they pull up at the platform — there’s an announcement of the final destination, but one has to look at the map to really tell which train you really want. Finally there’s what’s announced in the train itself: basically, nothing. You can kind of hear the name of the station you just pulled up to, and then really quickly an announcement of the destination of the train again. And the cars have no information on the routes you are following — definitely not on the current route, and not even a system map that’s obvious.
Compare with the Moscow Metro. Trains to different destinations almost never arrive at the same platform at stations — you always know where the train is going based on the platform you’re on. Each platform indicates which stations are still in the direction of travel, so that you can calculate how many stops you need to wait till you should shove your way out of the car. Upon arriving at each station, the system announced “Station [name of station]. Transition to station [name of other station] on the [name of line of the other station]“. Before the train leaves from each station, the system announces “Warning, doors are closing; the next station is [next station in direction of travel]“. If you’re on a line for the first time, they’re making it very obvious what’s about to happen. If you’re there every day, it’s annoying but possible to tune out. Each car has a system map next to almost every exit door, and a map of the current line above almost every exit door as well.
In addition to San Francisco, I’ve been to subways in LA, Chicago, NYC, several cities in Russia, several cities in Europe, and in Argentina. I think the BART system really gets low points for newbie usability.