Photo by andertho

Greater Greater Washington draws our attention to a novel development in the naming of Metro stations — adding a logo.

On Monday a Capitol Hill ANC voted to add the curly W from the Nationals’ logo to the Navy Yard station name, formally making it “Navy Yard- .” According to JD Land, the idea of simply naming the station “Navy Yard-Ballpark” failed, but so too did the too-long alternative of “Navy Yard-Capitol Riverfront- .”

Gregory McCarthy of the Washington Sports and Convention Agency spoke on behalf of adding the curly W to the station name:

McCarthy of the Nationals told the commission many of the same things he did back in December: the Curly W is the official logo of a city-owned building, and the team wants the logo to appear on transit signage just as it does on freeway signs around the area. McCarthy also said the team very much wants to promote transit as the best way to get to the stadium, and that having the logo on signs and maps helps to emphasize the connection between Metro and the Nationals year-round. There’s also no desire to have any variation of “Nationals Park” in the name, given the possibility that the stadium’s naming rights will someday be sold and the name changed.

Greater Greater Washington’s David Alpert lays out some reasonable objections:

A strange symbol in a station name would cause untold confusion. How will people talk about the station in text messages? There isn’t a key for “Curly W logo” on any smartphones. Many apps contain lists of stations. What would they do? Does the GTFS data feed specification include a mode for a name to contain an image? Should it be vector graphics or raster?

In reality, what would really happen is that the station will be called “Navy Yard-W” in many places. And inevitably, some will assume that it was named for our 43rd President. This comes just 10 years after this region fought against Congressional meddling that forced the name of a locally unpopular President on a station.

I’m still trying to get over what a massive pain in the ass it will be to write out the station name in blog posts, not to mention contend with the predictable rush of similar proposals from other neighborhood groups. (Woodley Park- , anyone?) Then again, it would be a nice break from convention, right?