Your place to share stories on and off the bus.
Rode a 49 down Mission the other day for the first time in a month or so, and I noticed that the stretch between 16th and Cesar Chavez has actually gotten worse. It’s like kids have been out there with pickaxes, tearin’ shit up.
Perhaps the Obama administration’s infrastructure-stimulus plan can start right here in the heart of the Mission. I am now officially unemployed, and would love to get all Habitat for Humanity, only on road repair. Sign me up!
Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but on both of my buses this morning, the driver announced next stops, and gave connecting routes, over their bus’s PA. Not only that, but you could also make out what they were saying.
Is this a new attempt at better transit? Anyone else notice this lately?
Yesterday’s post from Suzanne about a cyclist hit by Muni at Townsend and Fourth got me thinking of a post I did a few years ago about the hierarchy of urban mobility.
That was then. But I’d only make a few modifications today.
In simplified form:
1) pedestrians
2) cyclists
3) mopeds and scooters
4) motorcyclists
5) public transit
6) privately owned cars
7) service trucks
Thoughts?
I was on a 49-Van Ness yesterday evening, as the results for several East Coast states were coming in and Election Day was gearing up for the good stuff.
First, I listened to a man chatting with someone on the phone, who gave the most recent play-by-play results he had been watching for all day. He then demanded a free lunch if Obama reached 350 electoral votes. Results right now (9 a.m. on Thursday) show he’s at 349, with no major network yet calling North Carolina for the president-elect.
Then two boys got on with their moms. They were buddies, clearly, talking about school and their Halloween costumes, particularly which Halloween superstore had the best Batman costume.
Boy 1 was Hispanic, and said he lives wayyy down the 49, meaning he probably lives in the Excelsior, or somewhere else near City College on the south side of town. He had a few things to say about Tuesday’s election.
Boy 1: Everyone gets to vote today. Where are you from?
Boy 2: Los Angeles.
Boy 1: Oh. That’s near Mexico, right?
Boy 2: Yeah, kind of.
Boy 1: Well, I’m from Mexico, and McCain wants us to leave. He wants all the Mexicans to leave and go back to Mexico. But Obama wants us to stay.
Make of it what you will.
We don’t talk about Muni transit maps on this site much. Perhaps we should.
But I came across this riveting documentary about the maps for the London Underground. (Thx: Kottke)
The documentary is really more about design than transit per se. But maps affect our understanding of how a system works. Therefore, in my mind, the maps are key to the efficient use of any public transit system.
Now, if only we had a world-class system here in San Francisco …
– Jeff wishes we could start San Francisco over, SIMS-style, and give it the transit-first layout it truly deserves.
511 TripPlanner says it will take me about 57 minutes to get from where I work (Fisherman’s Wharf) to San Bruno, using a combination of walking, Muni and BART. The San Bruno BART station is 12.2 miles from the center of San Francisco.
It routinely takes me an hour to get anywhere within San Francisco via Muni, and I almost never cross the entire length or width of the 7 mi. by 7 mi. city on any given day. The exception is, of course, if I’m traveling to and from near-consecutive neighborhoods, such as the Mission to Glen Park.
In every other case, the One-Hour Phenomenon has proven true from Fisherman’s Wharf to Hayes Valley, from Fisherman’s Wharf to the Mission, from the Richmond to the Mission, from Cole Valley to the Mission.
We all knew BART was faster and more reliable (except that one day last week), but this was a rather dismal realization on an already dismal (weather-wise and economically) week.
Will the Central Subway ease our troubles?
Tara Ramroop canceled her extraneous credit cards and is watching her finances even more stringently (i.e., anally) than she already did. Now, more than ever, she and others may rely on the cost-effective Muni for transportation. Don’t let us down!