Your place to share stories on and off the bus.
Photo by @Shanna
We had no idea either, until we asked our Muni driver friend, who has an answer for us. “This is a measure for how much sand is left in the bags on the Light Rail Vehicles. The LRVs use a lot of sand on rainy days or for hard braking.”
The LRVs carry sand under the seats and drops sand onto the tracks for traction on rainy days or for hard braking in other situations.
One mystery solved.
Photo by macraemcdermott
“You seem to be observing the environment around you. Quickly take the smartphone from your pocket and scroll aimlessly. Be careful to avoid any human interactions with those around you.”
Damn. What do they say about sticks and stones and names?
Photo by Bill Swingle
I was riding Muni home late tonight from downtown from 4th and Market, I think on the 6 outbound. At the very back row of the bus was a young woman, probably somewhere between age 16 and 20, sitting by herself. There were 15 to 20 people on the bus.
Around 5th or 6th street, a group of three or four men dressed in hoodies got on and were standing close to one another at the entrance of the rear door. I assume they were whispering or talking quietly to each other, but I had headphones on and couldn’t hear. They were fiddling with something in their hoodies’ pockets.
Nothing unusual was going on, and shady people on Muni is nothing new, so I looked out the window for a few moments. Around 8:30 p.m., at the 8th Street island, suddenly there was yelling and shouting coming from the front and back of the bus. I see at least two of the men rush from the back out the doors, and one man fighting with the girl, who was screaming at him to leave her. I saw something that looked like a gun in his right hand as he was grabbing her hand holding her phone with his left. I saw him punch her in the face twice and then run out the rear door with her phone. This all happened in the span of about 10 seconds.
The bus driver stopped the bus and someone nearer to her called 911. The girl was holding her face which was red but didn’t appear to be bleeding. She looked like she was on the verge of tears. On the seat next to me was a clip from the gun, presumably dropped during the flight, which someone else noticed and picked up. They speculated that it was a clip to a fake gun or a bebe gun, but I don’t know if it was or not. SFPD showed up in minutes.
The SFMTA told us that their video unit is pulling video of the incident. Be careful out there, everyone.
Seems like quite a lot of work to save $2. And if you can afford an Android phone, you should probably pay for your bus ride, no?
Nevertheless, the security specialists, Corey Benninger and Max Sobell from the Intrepidus Group, have alerted the SFMTA as well as New Jersey’s PATH system, both transit systems that could be vulnerable to this kind of hack.
From SFGate:
Intrepidus staffers met with Muni and Path officials last year to notify them of the potential for abuse. The firm also presented the information at a security conference in Europe last week.
“We had hoped this would be fixed on both systems before we released this data, but our understanding is that’s not planned for possibly years down the line,” Benninger said.
Since other transit agencies could adopt a similar payment system, they wanted to highlight the security issues.
A limited version of Intrepidus’ app is available to transit agencies that want to test whether their smart cards are vulnerable. But it doesn’t have the capability to change or reset the cards’ data, Benninger said.
The SFMTA told SFGate that they have not noticed any discernible change in the use of paper Limited Use fare cards. A fix for the security hole could be costly, but one option could be to reduce the 90-day life of these types of tickets to discourage hacking, SFGate reports.
Have you seen the two winners of the 100 Days, 100 Muni Stories contest on the bus today?
Earlier this summer, we hosted a “100 Days, 100 Muni Stories” contest to celebrate Muni’s centennial. The prize for your awesome Muni tales? Your own spotlight on the bus! We looked through all the entries past and present, including submissions and tweets, and recruited Isaac Fitzgerald, the managing editor of The Rumpus, as the guest judge.
Our “100 Days, 100 Muni Stories” winners are @scenechangego and @jeannabarrett, and you can see their tweets on buses starting this week!
In case you are new to Muni Diaries, we are just three blog nerds chained to our laptops in our living rooms, making a website for stories that happen on the bus. That is, we are an independent website and not affiliated with the SFMTA. So we were as surprised and excited as anyone can be when the SFMTA said we can have some ad space on the bus to feature your best stories and tweets!
Here’s Jeanna’s winning tweet:
Muni Diaries is your space to share stories, tweets, and photos that happen on public transit, so thank you to everyone who submitted to the contest and the site. Let’s blow up the party talk some more!
Muni Diaries “100 Days, 100 Muni Stories” graphic design is by Lisa Wong Jackson. Check her out at Good on Paper.
Photo by ohheygreat
The accordion player and his ecstatic dog at Civic Center station were photographed by @ohheygreat on Instagram. She also has a cute print shop that you should check out.
P.s. Help me find your transit pictures on Instagram by tagging us #munidiaries.