Author: Tara

Tara Ramroop has laughed, cried, and commiserated with this amazing community from the start. She's been writing for as long as she can remember and riding Muni for more than a decade.

Muni operator, driver get into physical fight

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Image courtesy Carla Romero for The Examiner

Being a Muni operator is no picnic in the park sometimes. Because, FSM knows, even as you’re piloting a Muni vehicle by picnics in the park, any number of surprises and vitriol could launch themselves into your lane.

That’s why it was especially disheartening to see and hear of violence against Muni operators. This past weekend, Muni operator Carla Romero, pictured above, claimed she was attacked by an irate car driver as she reattached the trolley wires outside a 30-Stockton bus. The driver, in turn, claimed Romero attacked him. See the full report on SFExaminer.com.

Romero told The Examiner that she loves working for Muni, but she wants the public to be more aware of the violence operators are subject to out there.

To many of us Muni riders, a great operator can make your day. Cases in point: an operator, Tammy, throwing a party for her passengers on the 33-Stanyan; Driver Doug, who somehow still associates the word “Zen” with Muni after driving it for 17 years; and this Metro operator, who has absolutely no time to wait for shit blocking his path.

Stay safe, everybody, and keep your hands to yourselves whenever possible.

Category: News

Hot ‘Dam’: The Amsterdam tram top 10

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As if Amsterdam’s ridiculously high quality of life wasn’t enough to give us serious jelly beans, its tram system, run by an agency called GVB, also wins. Buckle in for my Amsterdam tram Top 10 list; this is what everyone does there on vacation, right?

10. It travels through some of the densest, oldest, most heavily touristed parts of town, intermingling with footpaths everywhere, and it never seemed anywhere close to hitting someone. Kudos to it and transit-aware pedestrians.

See above and below for #9: Some of the trams dress up for Pride! As well they should as ambassadors for their fair city. We’ve always loved displays of equality and solidarity on Muni.

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8. It looks like a face from the front, and I refuse to believe it’s just me.

7. Its origins of literal horsepower. Several tram lines are descendants of horse-powered lines from the 1800s. Amsterdam, it’s just like us!

6. You pay in the back, with a person who is not the driver, if you need to buy a ticket on the tram. Good luck not feeling like an asshole for sneaking on.

5. The fact that Line 4 gave itself an bath in the Amstel (the river, not the beer) in 1950, prompting me to say, today: Go home, Line 4. You’re drunk. Disclaimer OK, I do not know the circumstances around that image and I hope everyone was safe.

4. Disabled seats are a different color than the rest and marked with pregnant or elderly stick figures. SF, do we need to make it more obvious?

3. THIS ANECDOTE, h/t Wikipedia, the source of all things: “From 1922 until 1971, all trams had mailboxes at their rear side. These were emptied at Centraal Station; the post office’s distribution centre was located next to the station…Thanks to the tram mailboxes, a letter could be delivered on time, even if it is too late for the last collection from the regular mailboxes.”

2. This view from my window on a 2. The 33, the J, T and N all provide some stellar views of San Francisco — and it warms my heart when a new-to-me view shows up during travel.

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1. This game <3. Srsly GO away, Pokemon Go.

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If you need me, I’ll be relentlessly pitching GVB Diaries to the powers that be.

Category: Funny: Muni LOLs

They’re just like us: Oakland A’s players on BART

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Photo: CSN Bay Area Sports’ Brodie Brazil’s Facebook page

This isn’t a “who’s the asshole manspreading in the disabled seats” post — no, no, there is a special circle of Muni Diaries shame for those. Look closer, sports fans.

Per CSN Bay Area Sports’ Brodie Brazil, Oakland A’s pitcher Sonny Gray and outfielder Billy Burns, standing left, are hella taking BART. Major delays were predicted due to Bay Bridge construction, and these guys are clearly paying attention.

A reader/rider on the scene, who says this was taken after Monday night’s Battle of the Bay matchup against the Giants, commented on Brazil’s FB post, saying they were “so unassuming and could have been mistaken for regular college guys with their backpacks on!”

Those backpacks don’t happen to be designed by other Oakland A’s teammates and prominently (boldly, fantastically) feature unicorns?

Bonus: Gray is featured in the green-collar baseball ad near the middle of the pic.

(h/t: A’s fan Ericka. Go, Giants.)

Got a BART story? @bartdiaries is your place to share it.

Category: BART
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