Train and Subway look very similar
On my recent trip to Berlin, I used a multi-modal public transit system for the first time in my life. Immediately, I got confused because Google's icon for "train" looks a lot like a bus. So, instead of going to the train station in the airport, I went outside a spent 30 minutes looking for a bus.
I'm now checking all of GNOME's public transit mode icons, to see if they are confusing. I'm happy to say that GNOME's "train" icon looks a lot more like a train than Google's does. In fact, most of the "mode of transport" icons look quite distinctive. However, there is one exception:
There is no appreciable difference between a train and a subway. The icons look the same to me:
Icons like "tram" are distinctive because of the pantograph visible in the icon. Busses are distinguishable from trains/trams/subways by the wheels, and distinguishable from cars by the fact that there's no hood in the front (though this icon is strangely tall, which makes it look less like a bus...). Trains and subways both look like some vehicle that rides on rail rather than wheels (the rails on the GNOME icons are longer and more angle than Google's, which help distinguish them from wheels when the icon is small), but it's unclear which is which
I can think of two solutions:
- Make trains look like bullet trains. This probably isn't the ideal solution, simply because the icon would stop looking physically similar to many street trains (including the S-Bahn). However, a bullet-train icon would still probably be useful, to distinguish street trains (like the S-Bahn) from long-distance high-speed trains (ICE, maglev, Amtrak, etc).
(credit)
- Put the subway icon in a tunnel