DERP Muni
Found this on instagram. As shinranshoni says, “Derp muni is right.”
Also, we’re having a Muni Diaries live event tonight at the Elbo Room. You should totally go. Totally.
Author: jeff
Muni to test three-car Metro trains
Photo by Danny Howard
As SF Appeal‘s April Siese points out:
It’s unclear from the BC article exactly why hooking up multiple trains would make things go faster — though they report that “delays on just one line can grind the whole system to a halt,” it seems like delays on a big, long, hooked up train will be just as system-clogging.
We’d love to hear what you think of this idea. Will joining trains for their journey underground help to speed up the chronically sluggish Muni Metro system?
Read more at The Bay Citizen and SF Appeal.
A lightsaber could come in handy on Muni
Image courtesy Wired.com
In advance of George Lucas’ latest tinkering (the upcoming release of Star Wars movies on Blu-ray), Japanese transportation officials have turned the grab bars on Tokyo subways into lightsabers. Nerds can finally hold onto something other than … well, I’ll stop there.
According to Wired.com:
Using stickers with built-in buttons and LED lights, the promo isn’t only smart, it’s also a great opportunity for stealing Star Wars memorabilia. I imagine that these stick-in ’sabers are going to disappear very quickly indeed.
You might be thinking, ‘Tokyo would do something this cool.’ The best makeover San Francisco transit vehicles have received lately is being wrapped in blue for Dell Computer. Yawn.
Photo Diary: Just Relax, Little One
My love of dogs (and dogs on Muni) forces me to appreciate even the ones that resemble Ewoks and Teddy bears. I mean, look at the expression!
Image by ninifaye on Instagram.
Examiner: Muni runs over cyclist’s arm, drives off
Photo by Frank Farm
Last week near the intersection of Columbus and Broadway, a cyclist moved to avoid a double-parked car. She was then struck by a Muni bus and knocked down. The cyclist and her attorney told the Examiner that the bus then ran over her arm, and drove away.
According to the SF Examiner:
[Laila] Brenner’s bike crashed to the ground, and the back right tire of the bus rolled over and crushed her arm, her attorney Doug Saeltzer said. While Brenner lay injured, the 8X-Bayshore Express then sped off.
SFMTA claims that the driver might not have realized that the bus had run over the woman’s arm because it was an articulated bus, and the impact to the rear section might not have been felt in front.
SFPD and SFMTA are investigating the incident.
Read more at SF Examiner.
Clipper Payment Problems
Photo by Jamison Wieser
Muni rider Scott ran into a rather complicated bit of trouble with his Clipper card recently. His account was set to auto load $20 ecash for when he uses the card on transit systems other than Muni. But then he got a new debit card and forgot to notify Clipper. Then, on Aug. 4 …
Clipper attempted to charge $72 for my August Fast Pass against the card that was closed. Because Clipper credits your card before the transaction is actually processed, I did not realize my mistake until Aug. 12, when I received an email to tell my that my charge was declined. I immediately signed on to my account on the Clipper website and updated my credit card info.
But because the charges for his Fast Pass were declined, Clipper blocked that part of Scott’s card until they processed the transaction on his new card. Because the ecash part of his card was not blocked, every time he used Muni between until Clipper cleared his new card, he was deducting $2 per ride.
It seems there is a problem with the Clipper website, where updated billing information is not saved correctly, so when the cash balance on my Clipper card was depleted and when they attempted a new charge, they used my old debit card number and the charge was declined. But, Clipper credited my card. And because there is so much lag time between when the transactions are declined to when they notify the customer, I continued to deplete the Clipper card balance and they initiated more transactions against the closed debit card.
Finally, he tried using the card and found that it was completely blocked. He called Clipper and they informed him of the error with their website. Scott was assured that his account was not corrected and Clipper would expedite having his card unblocked.
Since this was 4:40 p.m. on a Friday, I didn’t have much hope. Sure enough, the card was not cleared until the morning of Aug. 30, when I used my card on the 24, I saw on the display that my monthly pass was used. Then at 1:07 p.m., on the same day, I received an email that charges to my debit card were declined. I called Clipper and sure enough my card is blocked again. Once again, I was told that it was fixed and that it should be available to use in 24 hours.
Scott adds: “I’m not holding my breath.” My god.
We contacted Scott to hear about any possible resolution to his story. We at Muni Diaries are no strangers to Clipper fuckery ourselves. How about you? Has something similar to Scott’s ordeal happened to you? It appears that the website at least sometimes fails to process user updates.