Hip hip hooray! The Muni wires will stay!

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In a swift defeat of what could very well be the dumbest idea to hit San Francisco ever (and there sure is stiff competition in that realm), the Super Bowl planning committee has withdrawn their own plan to remove Muni’s overhead trolley wires around Justin Herman Plaza.

The SF Examiner has the story:

A representative of the Super Bowl 50 Host Committee apparently said in a phone call to Supervisor Jane Kim’s office that after some analysis the committee decided it would not move through with plans to remove Muni wires.

There was no mention during the phone call of the public backlash to the plan, according to Kim’s office.

Great news, although, as Market Street Railway points out, the F-Market route will essentially be cut in half, with bus substitutes running west up Market Street and streetcars remaining along the Embarcadero. Several bus routes will be rerouted as well.

About the wires, though, Kim had this to say:

“I’m gratified that the Super Bowl 50 committee took another look at the idea of removing overhead Muni wires for the Super Bowl festival, and decided not to pursue that idea. The impact on commute times and work productivity for the folks that make San Francisco work would have been burdensome, not to mention the possible consequences for bicyclist and pedestrian safety. Those were my greatest concerns, so I’m happy that this was resolved.”

You can read the whole story over at the Examiner’s site.

Done and done. No need for the petition. But please don’t stop sharing your rad photos of Muni wires!

Photo by Lynn Friedman

Upset about the Super Bowl/Muni wires thing? Sign this petition!

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Last week, we told you about how the Stupid Super Bowl wants to take down our beloved Muni trolley wires on Market Street so they can have their stupid football party, or whatever. Since then, Erik Ogan has created a Change.org petition that you can totally sign in an attempt to stop this stupid idea from becoming reality. Go on, sign the petition.

This has been a service of the Muni Diaries Sensibility Project.

Photo by @nyxnax

More about San Francisco’s Subway Master Plan

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Remember when the news about the Board of Supervisors passing the Subway Master Plan broke? That … that was awesome.

Now, on the heels of that news, the always-handy Muniverse digs into four projects already at least in the study phase that the SMP will affect now that it has been passed.

By far, the biggest project (for the region) will be a Second Transbay BART Tube and a new line through San Francisco. BART is still in the early stages of planning, but there’s one particular corridor that seems to be gaining traction and included in presentations. Under this setup, the second Transbay Tube would cross the bay from Alameda to San Francisco, landing around AT&T park and running under Second or Third to Market Street.

Other systems/projects that will benefit from the new plan are: the Caltrain/High-Speed Rail, an M-Ocean View/Park Merced extension and maybe-subway, and the T-Third/Central Subway extension to Fisherman’s Wharf. Read the rest of Muniverse’s post about the Subway Master Plan for more details.

Image by Muniverse/Jamison Wieser

SFGate’s 10 types of BART driver: Can you name more?

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If you’ve taken BART 10 different times, you’ve probably already won BART Driver Bingo. Today on SFGate, 10 different types of BART operator are exposed. Here’s a sample:

  1. THE PUBLIC SHAMER We all saw the commuter jam onto the train with her bike. There’s no need to go on a minute-long rant about the woman in the third car who almost took the train out of service for everyone else. We got it. She got it. Please let us ride the train without tension lingering in the air.
  2. THE PLACATER “If you’re trying to squish onto this train, there’s another SFO train directly behind this one.” No, driver. That train is 10 minutes away. That is not “directly behind,” and it will be even more full than this one. Stop trying to trick us!
  3. THE MUMBLER Uh oh, the train has stopped in the Transbay Tube. Better take out your headphones and listen to the announcement. Ah yes, it sounds like we’re experiencing hisssss hissss train shhhh delay. Did anyone catch that? No? Hopefully it’s not a real problem…

To read the full list, visit SFGate: The 10 types of drivers you get on BART.

One type that I would add: THE ALMOST-BUT-NOT-QUITE-ER You know the one—can’t quite get the train to line up with those black squares on the platform. Takes way too long to open the doors after pulling into the station.

If you’ve got any archetypal BART operators not yet named, share with the group!

Photo by Adam McLane

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