And the MetroGreater winner is…

You’ve voted, and the winning idea in the MetroGreater contest is… [drum roll] … installing compass roses at the entrances to Metro stations!

This summer, MetroGreater asked for your small, quick fixes to improve riders’ experience on Metro. People across the region submitted nearly 1,400 ideas which a jury narrowed down to 10 finalists. Then, you voted to pick a winner and the results are in. Installing compass rose decals at the exits of Metro stations won the majority of the votes!

The winning idea: Compass rose decals at station exits

A compass rose is a figure that shows you which north, south, east, and west are in. Installing compass rose decals outside stations with multiple exits could help Metrorail riders get their bearings after on their way out.

Robert Biemesderfer, an economics teacher from Falls Church, Virginia submitted the winning idea to MetroGreater. Like many others who submitted ideas to MetroGreater, he recognized that there is a lot of room for Metro to improve signage and wayfinding across the system. Here’s his original idea:

Exiting at an unfamiliar metro station, but don’t know the direction you need to head next? Use a compass rose to quickly orient yourself.

WMATA should keep the decals sufficiently far away from the station exit that tourists won’t stand over them and block escalator exits. In fact, if the decals are placed 10 feet forward from the exit, it could draw unfamiliar visitors forward and out of the way of escalators as they orient themselves.

The decals would work best if they gave primary prominence to the north direction, so that they could be read from a distance and were not dependent on reading the letters.

Here’s how voting played out

Voters agreed that compass rose decals would improve the rider experience. When casting a vote, people were able to rank as many of the 10 finalists as they wanted. We then picked the winner using Ranked Choice Voting, also known as Instant Runoff Voting. This system eliminates the lowest vote getter, one by one, and re-apportions each vote to that voter’s next highest choice still in the running, until one gets a majority.

Here’s a screenshot of the original results, before applying the Ranked Choice Voting method.

To see how the compass rose decal idea got the majority of the votes using the Ranked Choice Voting method, click the left, back arrow button on the green “Round 9” button in the interactive visualization below.

Many thanks to FairVote, for crunching the numbers and producing this tool to visualize the results! Learn more about the instant runoff or ranked choice voting method here.

Who voted?

During the two-week voting period, 1,522 people from across the region (and beyond!) ranked the 10 finalists. A little more than half (55%) of the votes came from people who live in DC. Virginians and Marylanders submitted 41% of the votes (21% and 20%, respectively). The remaining 4% of voters live outside the Washington region.

What’s next?

“We’re excited about having had the opportunity to work with Greater Greater Washington, CSG, and riders on this contest and are looking forward to following up on the winning idea, compass roses outside Metro stations,” said Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld.

In October, Greater Greater Washington will work with the Coalition for Smarter Growth and WMATA to host a happy hour to recognize the finalists and the winning idea. We’ll also dole out prizes and talk about ways Metro can continue to make small and big changes to ensure a safe, reliable transit system. Stay tuned for a save the date!

As promised, we’re also working on a series of posts about some of the ideas that didn’t make it to the finalist round.

Congratulations, again, to Robert and thank you to everyone who participated in MetroGreater!