How did the CTA decide which colors will represent which lines?

[Zol87]

How did the CTA decide which colors will represent which lines?

I've always wondered the answer to this question.

[trainman8119]

How did the CTA decide which colors will represent which lines?

I've always wondered the answer to this question.

I can't answer the question about all of the original lines (Brown, Blue, Green, Orange, Red, Yellow and Purple), but Pink was picked in a contest (or poll) of the kids in Chicago Public Schools. You didn't think someone with some real sense would have picked Pink, would you ????

[Busjack]

Other than the Pink Line, where a girl who went to the school at the end of the line won a contest, the rest are based on colors that were historically on the maps. Of course, at one time, the red on the map referred to the Howard-Englewood-Jackson Park, and the green referred to the Lake-Dan Ryan. At some point around 1995, the CTA decided to go "Boston" "DC" or "London," and give the lines those formal names.

See the maps on chicago-l.org, especially the notation that the maps started showing colors in 1985.

[RIPTA42]

Other than the Pink Line...the rest are based on colors that were historically on the maps.

But question still remains, why were those colors picked?

Except for the Purple Line, I'm guessing there was no method to the color assignment.

[Busjack]

But question still remains, why were those colors picked?

Except for the Purple Line, I'm guessing there was no method to the color assignment.

Dennis McClendon, who is a cartographer and participates in the Yahoo groups, probably is the only one who can answer that.

[geneking7320]

Dennis McClendon, who is a cartographer and participates in the Yahoo groups, probably is the only one who can answer that.

Absolutely! I believe he is on the Chicago Transit Yahoo group.

[westing]

From what I have seen other transit agencies do, I'm guessing Red was chosen for the busiest line because of its vibrancy. Most cities that have one rail line or one metro(Los Angeles, Cleveland) will use red on the maps. Red and Blue are primary colors and have much popularity and that is probably why they were chosen for the busiest lines.

Yellow is also a primary color but it is a pain to print on maps and still be distinguishable. I'm guessing that is why the CTA chose yellow for the smallest line. The choice between Green and Orange is interesting. Green is usually always chosen before Orange, it seems to be a more popular color. The cities of Los Angeles, Portland, Dallas are examples that chose to use Green before Orange.

I've heard that the Purple line was supposed to be brown but during the time of color coding the suburbs were in a much darker brown shade that would have blended together too much. In any case, I think purple makes more sense for Northwestern anyways.

There seems to be quite a common trend in the theory of line color coding. When looking at other cities and the ridership levels the coding system usually goes like this: primary colors first (red, blue, yellow) then green followed by orange and other miscellaneous colors.

[Northsider]

I have asked a friend who has worked for the CTA. He says that Pink was decided because of the contest, obviously. Purple was chosen because of Northwestern. All of the other colors were chosen because of cartographic reasons, and has no historical significance.