BART Back in the Day

zennie-lars-BART

Zennie Abraham of The Blog Report With Zennie62 found this old photo of himself and his friend Lars on the then-new BART back in 1975. He ventured that he and his young friend might be going to San Francisco for the sole purpose of riding the brand-new underground tube.

From his post on SFGate:

BART was new then.  It opened in 1972 and transbay service (under the San Francisco Bay from Oakland to San Francisco) started in 1974.  What was neat about BART at that time was everything was automatic: the doors opened and the train didn’t even have the human operators that are in each one today; it was supposed to be ran by computer. As I recall, the problems didn’t start mounting up until 1976.  But even with that it was a smooth almost soundless ride; the tracks have worn so much that such an experience is a thing of the past.

Ah, old school BART. I love that these kids were stylin’ big time.

Photo Diary (of sorts): BART Art

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Photo by itsolivia from the nascent BART Photos Flickr pool

So cool. And that’ll teach this San Franciscan to visit MacArthur for more than just a train-transfer.

Be sure to check out the new BART Photos group on Flickr, where you can add all your wonderful imagery. We’ll use the photos from time to time the same way we do on Muni Diaries, and we’ll always give the photographer credit.

Also, keep those BART diaries coming: bartdiaries@gmail.com.

Happy Thursday, and happy commuting!

Updated with Editors Note: Cobra Malt Liquor Through a Straw

A lot of you objected to the publication of a photo that rider Matthew took on the 19-Polk, of someone who he thought was a dead-ringer for Whitney Houston. Your comments are really valuable to us at Muni Diaries as we constantly walk the fine line between democratic forum and editorial integrity. We don’t often turn your posts away because we want to create a place where you can tell your stories, but we definitely don’t want to do this at someone’s expense. We’ve taken the picture down but left the text of the story here in the post. Agree or disagree with our decision? We want to know. Please tell us in the comments section. – Jeff and Eugenia

Original post:

Muni rider Matthew writes to tell of a possible celebrity-sighting on a San Francisco bus.

Tell me this wasn’t Whitney Houston! She was a “BOBBY!!” shriek away from a dead ringer.

Seriously, her makeup looked professionally applied, if a little too glittery for 3 p.m. If she wasn’t so wasted and her top wasn’t so stained with spilled liquids, I really would have thought it was the Diva Herself. God I hope those stains were just her drinks…

“Whitney” fell asleep long enough for me to snap her photo. She woke up soon after to root around in one of her bags for another Cobra Malt Liquor (which she drank through a straw, because as you can see, she is a LADY).

I can snap photos and poke fun because lord knows I’ve been that drunk lady on the bus a time or thousand.

Matthew has just become the first Muni-razzi. Seen any celebs or dead-ringers on Muni? muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com

No Man-Sitting!

no man sitting

Remember the big-balls-having guy from the first Muni Mind Reader episode, the guy whose nuts are so big they take up two seats?

Well, the ladies of Boston had enough of these guys too, and they’ve created a button warning against such behavior.

The AboutWomen project in Boston, who made the button above, also wrote a letter to the MBTA expressing their concern:

We’ve designed a badge for public transportation customers to wear in order to encourage passenger civility. We hope to raise awareness of fellow passenger’s comfort with this visual reminder.

Often, we believe, some T-riders aren’t aware that they’re taking up three seats with their knees. Of course, there are many other discourteous behaviors, like occupying additional seats with your belongings, but the particular posture depicted on our button is the most commonly complained about offense found in our survey of T- passengers.

Read the rest of the letter here.

Thanks to our friends at Tenderblog and the London Underground Tube Diary for this hilarious find.

$2 for ladder transport

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This harrowing, probably-totally-against-the-rules tale arrived in our inbox the other day from Muni rider Christine:

Dear Muni Diaries,

The other day I learned you can’t bring a ladder on Muni.

I borrowed the ladder from a cross-town friend. The 22 bus pulls up, I put my bike on the front, and walk up the stairs with the ladder, and flash my Fast Pass. The driver tells me that I can’t bring the ladder on the bus. Dumbfounded, I stare at him. He tells me it’s “too dangerous.” What?!

Anticipating a very long walk with my bike AND a ladder, I came up with a solution by the time the next 22 pulled up…. 🙂

Camouflaged, my ladder rode happily back to my apartment.

– Christine

Seen contraband on the bus lately? Let us know: muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com

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