Best Design for Transit Seating
This weekend our pals over at The Bay Citizen came out with a very alarming report: After running a few tests on the seats of San Francisco's two main transit systems—Muni and Bay Area Rapid Transit—the fabric covering BART seats is disgusting. Beyond the spilled lattes and the occasional pool of vomit, scientists found all manner of bacteria, including methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, a dangerous flesh-eating bacteria. I'd been chatting with an editor friend of mine at the Citizen and we agreed that Dwell would throw its design journalism hat in the ring with an interview on what separates good transit seating from bad. I had a chat with Paul Martus, senior industrial designer with American Seating about just this thing. Martus has worked on seating on buses and in public spaces. American Seating traces its legacy back to the 1880s and counts city bus lines, Fenway Park, and Madison Square Gardens as just a few of its clients. Here's what Paul had to say.
What would you point to as a best practices kind of seat for public transit?
Honestly, if sustainability is what you're after then the less glue, the less fabric, the less plastic you have the better. The naked seat is the best for that, though it's hard because so many different environments have different needs. But I'd say a frame where the bulk of the seat stays where it is and then maybe there's some kind of onset [an element of the seat that clips on or off] that's cleanable and can be exchanged if needed.
These seats on the Los Angeles Metro are Model 850 Innovator (rail).
Yet plenty of public spaces and applications, like BART here in the Bay Area, use fabric in their designs.
In the minds of a lot of transit authorities, they're more into the visuals of the design, and by that I mean visual cleanliness. You look at a lot of the textiles in hotels or on transit and those fabrics have so much noise on them to hide the stains and spills. A naked seat might be best, but they can be cold and there is this thought that an upholstered seat is more humane and more comfortable.
Can we build something into the design to make it more cleanly--and I mean deeply cleanly--in the first place?
There are additives that you can put into the components of the seats. For example there are additives in public seating that prevent fire and smoke, which are huge concerns in public transit especially if you get caught in a tunnel. In 2008, we were working on a grab handle for our Vision and InSight seats. We had a company called Agion come in. The company basically embeds silver into the plastic part as a antimicrobial agent. We also, contacted fabric companies. They described to us sewing an anti-fungal thread into the weave. Neither of these solutions were pursued, though, because of cost.
These are blue 507 series seats from American Seating and are installed at Nationals Park in Washington DC.
How then can we cope with what may be lurking deep in our transit seating?
We only have novel ideas of paper roles like at the Doctors office and things that resemble hair and beard nets for seats. Also, someone suggested keeping the experience as hands free as possible. I also think that in terms of public hygiene we're in fear mode. It's a big issue, and of course transit could be cleaner. But as a rider what are you going to do, bring a paper bag to sit on? I'm afraid I don't have any really great answers. Keep your immune system up!
Don't miss a word of Dwell! Download our FREE app from iTunes, friend us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter!
Article
-
Undivided Intentions
The late architect David Boone was always one to take his work home with him—he just kept it in the home’s office. The new residents of his 1972 house embrace a more fluid approach to…
Products
-
Emu Pattern Seating
Spill on it. Stack it. Leave it out in the rain. This hexagonally embellished seat is made from a single piece of steel designed to effortlessly weather whatever elements your backyard has to offer.
-
Swell Seating Collection
Not only made in America, the Swell Seating Collection and its pieces are nearly all made in Pennsylvania. The specialized sewing necessary to produce the slings that make up the seats is done at…
-
Transit Jacket
Transit’s reflective detailing remains incognito during the day but helps passing motorists see you at night. Four-way stretch fabric allows a wide range of motion, but we wish the arms were…
Videos
-
The Model Architect: Bart Prince
In our newest video series, The Model Architect, we explore the design process through the art of model-making. We begin in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the studio and residence of Bart Prince, a…
-
Universal Design: Public Bathrooms
For the second offering of our two-part series on Universal Design, the folks from Smart head over to some public restrooms in New York, illustrating how principles outlined in the first video could…
Events
-
The Seat Project
WET: “West End Terminal” is an interactive art piece by Nilus de Matran to be showcased at SEAT, an outdoor chair show that will be located at Ft. Mason in San Francisco. The show is…
-
Citizen Architect
Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio is a documentary film on the late architect Samuel Mockbee and the educational design/build program known as the Rural…
-
Bus Rapid Transit: Getting New York's Buses Moving
New York City has the slowest bus system in the country. Getting it to move faster requires re-imagining how buses operate in the city. Explore the options being piloted in New York, as well as…
Advertising
Advertising
Advertising
Related Products
-
Emu Pattern Seating
by Arik LevySpill on it. Stack it. Leave it out in the…
-
Swell Seating Collection
Not only made in America, the Swell Seating…
-
Transit Jacket
by Aether ApparelTransit’s reflective detailing remains…
Latest
-
05.22
ICFF 2012 : Design Milk Presents
"Reinvention; Writing History in Aluminum" showcases a…
-
05.22
ICFF 2012: Brass Tactics
Everywhere we looked on the show floor of ICFF, we saw our own…
-
05.20
ICFF 2012: New from Black + Blum
Two products we really loved from the ICFF show floor came…
Follow
Dwell
Reloading tweets…
It's a little bit sensationalist to talk about dangerous bacteria lurking in public transport without noting whether or not there was a sufficient amount found to warrant actual concern for transit users.
William makes a good point. I was thinking the same thing, namely, how widespread is the issue. For example was MRSA found routinely or sporadically, or hopefully rarely? When I go to the hospital they have plastic seats with a chrome base. I kid you not, there was one occasion where something liquid was evident on the seat & I had no idea what it was. Every time I go to a place like that, I visually examine the seating, checking once & then twice before using it. Aaron, you asked the question: "How then can we cope with what may be lurking deep in our transit seating?" I'm reminded that in other cities such as Bangkok, they have a very 21st century, state of the art, overhead rail system that is clean, modern, efficient & works beautifully. Someone there had their head screwed on straight & decided to put the funding they had into infrastructure rather than top down, bloated, over-extended, salaries. Here in the bay area, it's the opposite, we subject the public to rider experiences that are questionable at best & borderline criminal at worst. While simultaneously we give every mid level manager & top brass at BART gigantic salaries & perks that are unsustainable. It's all a matter of priorities. I see the solution as cultural, or mending government, bureaucratic ways rather than a deeply technical solution. As a side note, I had a friend from the east coast ride BART for the first time & described the experience as ear-shatteringly loud, or deafening unfortunately. He had to put ear plugs in his ears. Thanks for a great, although disturbing story.
I agree with other commenters and the designer quoted in the article that many people are in "fear mode." The notion that bacteria found on BART seats is causing disease is probably far-fetched, at best. Hand holds and grab bars probably have much more bacteria and contribute far more to transmission of common colds than those crummy cloth seats. And why do we have those cloth seats anyway? Sure they have noise dampening effects, but many major transit systems (I was in D.C. last week) are just as noisy and have hard plastic or vinyl seats. NYC subways have had hard seats for decades and nobody complains about how cold they are. This whole discussion seems to be a made-up issue with little scientific or public policy merit.
RSS Feed
Add a Comment