Your place to share stories on and off the bus.
Muni rider Steven recently told us about Blair Bradshaw‘s rad Fast Pass art. I totally wanna see these in person.
We got in touch with Blair, who had this to say about his artwork:
I’ve done a couple that have been birth days/months of people as well.
Update (9:05 p.m.): Mike updated Flickr with a better photo of the situation at Market/Clayton. He says:
The foreground bus seems to have gotten stuck when the driver took the turn way too tight, as evidenced by the fact that thing isn’t anywhere near the line it normally takes (painted on the ground). It was so far off, he couldn’t get it attached to the cables and had to just park it while he waited for help.
It sat there for a bit over half an hour, snarling traffic in both directions of Market and up Clayton. Eventually some help arrived and they managed to connect it back into the grid long enough to get it out of the intersection. Amazingly, through all of that time, most people still sat and patiently waited on the bus.
Thanks, Mike!
Original post:
Mike Dillon suggests, “Betcha you’ve never seen two 33s take this turn at the same time before…” You’re right, Mike. To which I’d add, “Dayum!”
Photog David L. describes the following scene:
The woman behind me was talking on a cellphone the entire trip (Yapper alert!) with a creepy ventriloquist’s dummy on her lap. Not only was she talking on the phone, but she occasionally was talking in what I assumed was the dummy’s voice as well.
Quelle horreur!
We’d have that look on our face, too, if confronted by such a tragedy. Thanks, David!
Photo by Brandon Doran
I heard an older woman’s voice from the opened bus door: “Do you give change?” We all knew the answer.
Then I heard the same woman’s voice: “When’s the next bus coming?”
The bus stop happened to be one without the NextBus display, so nobody really had an answer for her.
Just as I was starting to feel a little bad for her, a young man got up from the first row, leaned over to the open door and said, “Ma’am? I’ll pay for you. Come on in.”
The woman got in the bus — she was a silver-haired lady wearing a blue quilted coat. The young man paid her fare, got up, and gave his seat to her, and we were on our way.
Thank you, young man in the black leather jacket, Levi 514s, black Adidas, and black messenger bag. There’s a big difference between feeling bad for someone and actually doing something about it. Your kindness made me realize we need to cross that line more often.
Saw a Muni model citizen? Give them praise here.
@ringleader3 sends this one in. Muni’s better angels, and all that.
“check out this muni driver and riders helping a little old lady move her dead car out of the way of the L.”
Thanks, @ringleader3!
Rider Anthony sent us this picture of ol’ yellow on a “very crowded 38L.” When you’re ass-to-crotch with strangers during commute hour, it’s the little things that count.
Balloon animals on Muni is my favorite meme, short of actual pets on the bus. (And the even rarer meme of the bus arriving just when I needed it.) I spotted my first balloon animal on a snoozing Muni in October, after which rider Kristin sent us a pic of its twin (or perhaps the same one?) on a 16X. Rider Heather sent us a blue balloon dog from 2010, and, stretching even further back, we’ve got this orange one on the 5-Fulton, via telluomo on Flickr: