Muni Driver’s Surprising Gift

Photo by Oran Viriyincy

Shoshannah’s ride was made infinitely better by a little surprise from the driver.

Last night I got on a Richmond-bound 44 O’Shaughnessy at Forest Hill. I sat way in the back, on one of those single “jump seats” over the wheel wells on the new hybrid buses. I sank into a mental fog as thick as the mist swirling around the eucalyptus trees but was roused when I heard a sudden, tonal eruption.

Not at all unpleasant–definitely musical–and human-generated, not some odd ringtone. I looked around, trying to identify the source and then went back to my thoughts.

Again, a seemingly random sing-song utterance. I tried to find the person on the bus with the odd manifestation of Tourette’s syndrome but there were no clues. Then I heard it again, and this time, it registered. KIIIIRK-HAAAMMMM! It was the driver! He was singing out the stops!

Now that I was clued into the source I stayed tuned for his snappy renditions of upcoming intersections. People who weren’t cocooned by their headphones definitely enjoyed this diversion judging by the smiles as he sang out the stops and many called out “Thank you!” as they exited. When my stop arrived, I made sure to exit through the front door and thanked him for serenading us, brightening both my commute and my mental state.

We absolutely adore singing drivers!

A few other sightings:

• Short video of a singing 27-Bryant driver
• Audio of the 71-Haight driver singing out the stops
• Check out how much a driver’s singing delighted this passenger. Priceless.