Vigilante defends Muni against vagrant Facebook bus
Photo (not a Facebook bus) by Paul Sullivan
Ed tipped us to the following act of heroism (or idiocy? you decide):
“Holy crap, someone just yelled at a Facebook shuttle driver & blocked the door to fb’ers for stopping in muni stop. While no muni was around” (via @rotron)
Last we heard in the Public vs. Private Transportation Wars, a Muni operator was on the front lines laying down the law.
Turns out from watching the video linked from SFist’s story, I’m the guy who yelled at the driver. This happened at the stop at the corner of Market and 8th. NextMuni was reporting both an 83x and a 19 within two minutes. Right next to the Muni stop are two parking meters which are covered over in the mornings with signs designating the space as a shuttle stop. But the shuttle drivers apparently prefer to pull up at the Muni stop instead. I did not move to block the shuttle entrance, but was standing at the Muni stop and the shuttle driver pulled up right in front of me.
I often wait at this stop, and just a couple days before this incident, a shuttle was at the Muni stop and I had to walk out into traffic to catch the 83x. I asked the driver to notify SFMTA, but he said it would work better if I called. I called 311 and reported. It would be easy pickings for a ticket if they’d just post a staff member.
Because of this other recent incident, that contributed to me speaking up in the moment. I told the driver to pull forward into the available designated space ahead, but he would not. Eventually I moved, people got on, and he did move before the Muni buses arrived. However, I have a feeling he might not have stayed as long as usual due to my confronting him. This morning I waited for the 83x on 9th Street instead to have a more mellow morning.