Your place to share stories on and off the bus.
With the cold weather came a banner of HOLY SHIT LOOK AT THAT, spreading across the sky.
Jeff and I work across the street from this Muni lot by Pier 39, and it’s never looked quite so good. As he said before I took this pic, “This is God congratulating San Francisco on winning the World Series.”
Thanks, God?
Photo by jrodmanjr.
Or, maybe that’s a cliché and I shouldn’t call it that. Let’s go with dear-diary moment, instead.
Like everyone who works on this site, I gravitate willfully toward wacky-on-Muni like some kind of masochist. But my perspective is skewed after one too many missed runs, NextBus fiascoes, or just plain ol’ bad timing. I’ve been catching a 47-Van Ness in the evenings, on and off for nearly three years, and it’s all pretty standard fare. But it’s been particularly bad in the evenings, as my phone now habitually returns NextBus results like “19, 29, 39 minutes” after saying 4 minutes when I first started waiting. Say what you will about who and what sucks in this scenario, but, until recently, that was unusual for me, that time, and that 47 stop at the start of the line.
I tried to self-help by first acknowledging some basic truths. I fucking hate the bus sometimes; there, I said it. But I’m not driving to work, and I’m realistically not going to walk from downtown or ride my bike every day. Cab, shmab.
Therefore: I am taking Muni to work for at least one leg, and I have to deal with it. Dealing with it doesn’t include screaming into a phone about “goddamn shitty drivers standing around doing nothing while we wait in the rain for this fucking bus to leave.” (Who was that woman?)
Yesterday, after receiving still more crappy results from NextBus, I just grabbed an F-Market/Wharves a few minutes later. And I got a seat. And…did you know streetcars are actually really pretty after dark? They’re always pretty, you say? Not at 8:50 a.m. as a commuter.
But, at night; the interior lighting is warm, unlike the unforgiving fluorescence of our standard buses. People aren’t in a hurry. Tourists take pictures as the also-lit-up Embarcadero buildings and Transamerica Pyramid come into view. You can’t see people outside that clearly, so you’re wrapped up in an almost-intimate, cozy transit cocoon, barreling along to Market Street.
How did this turn into a foufy post about the F?
Whether it happens again today, tomorrow, or next week, Muni actually managed to make me hate it and love it in less than 30 minutes. Even if/when the scale tips again toward hatred, I will still use the bus and I will still have to find these moments to keep me sane.
Photo by Troy Holden.
We’re taking things easy this morning because we’ve got something up our sleeves in a few hours. See you tonight at Muni Time Capsule Happy Hours!
You may know Isaac Fitzgerald as the managing editor of The Rumpus, but what you may not know is that he’s got a little hero complex, which got him into a … situation on the 14-Mission. He told the story at Muni Diaries Live a few weeks ago at the Make-Out Room, and we invite you to enjoy his tale in this video.
Photo by Genista
Michelle Olson is a journalism student at SFSU. She set out to find opinions on where to sit on Muni. Here’s what she found.
I traveled with many other passengers down Mission Street to Daly City, and then back again. On the way there, I traveled in a single-car bus, and it was clear that there was one seat that was always taken, even when the bus wasn’t full. It was the front-facing seats with their back to the back doors, the only ones like it on the bus. I was going to call this seat The Popular Seat, but then I found out it was Scott’s favorite seat too. Scott is a rider who prefers to sit there, and he said he called it “My Seat.” He likes that less people crowd around the seat, and enjoys the added leg room, plus it’s facing forward. For now, let’s say this is Scott’s Seat.
Photo by Michelle Olson
One thing I noticed is that people don’t like sitting in the seats that face backwards or that face each other. I call these seats The Social Network – you can get close, but not too close. Here a group of four could happily interact, but this didn’t seem like something Muni riders want to do because these seats were usually vacant even when the bus was full.
A woman named Marsha sat next to me in the back, one row back from right across the second set of doors. She likes to sit near the backdoor so she doesn’t disturb people when she’s getting off the bus. It’s a seat she calls The Edge.
When I got to the end of the line on Daly City, I met Maria at the bus stop. She prefers the front for its lack of people and noise. I call these seats the Library Seats. Shhhhh.. be quiet, you’re in the front of the bus.
On the way back, I was on an articulated bus, with its special seats in the the middle that I call I’m Not Here For The View.
Photo by Michelle Olson
Getting back on the bus, the single seats filled up first. You can only find these seats on articulated buses, and it is yet another sign that commuters don’t like to be social with strangers. Muni rider Miguel denies the anti-social implication of these seats, though. He said he sits there to leave the front seats for seniors and families. Plus, this seat allows him to look out the window and is close to the back door.
Photo by Michelle Olson
And you know those people who always go to the very back of the bus, no matter what? Van, a Muni rider, prefers those seats. He likes the view and the air circulation back there. He said he also prefers to leave the front seats for families and elderly people.
Followers of Muni Diaries on Twitter shared their feelings on where the best seats are on Muni trains and buses.
While it may just be a tan plastic seat on the bus, it is a place where a rider will be spending time. So next time you board Muni, treat yourself to that window seat with extra leg room. Meals and peanuts might cost you extra, but the entertainment is free.