Your place to share stories on and off the bus.
Here’s a photo that makes you wish that you were young again, at that age when you didn’t care about the number of reasons why riding the outside of the J could be kind of dangerous, and you never worried about knee problems because you are going to live forever.
Thank you to Robert of Robert Leidner Photography for this great photo we’ll add to the collection of wholly unrecommended ways to ride Muni.
We saw her in March, traveling through time via Muni. And here she is again a week ago, when another rider spotted this mystery lady dressed in full Victorian (I think? Or let’s just say, old timey) glory. Who is she and where is she going? Muni Diaries HQ wants to know.
Photo by Daniel Johnson.
Photographer Kian Lavi was struggling to keep up with his hobby because, like most of us, his day job always seemed to get in the way. But people like you—Muni riders each with a story of your own—inspired him to start a 100-day photo project that has captured the best of what we love about life on the bus. Lavi has been photographing one rider a day on his commute, and he is just a little more than halfway done. Along the way, he says, “I’ve gotten job offers, heard fantastic stories, and have fallen in love with every person I get to talk to.”
And of course, getting to know your fellow riders gave Lavi a Muni story or two of his own. We chatted with him last week:
What made you decide to do this 100-day project?
I heard about The Great Discontent’s #The100DayProject after reading an article about Michael Bierut, and it made me realize how out of touch with my own photography I had become. I do street photography in my downtime, but without downtime, I’d all but stopped. The project’s prompt to make something, however small, for 100 days caught my eye and has held my attention for over 50 days now. I love people, so it was natural for me to focus my project on the people around me every day.
A tiny Austrian town has built some of the most intriguing bus stops we’ve ever seen. The town of Krumbach (population 1,000) approached some international architects to design bus stops in exchange for a free vacation, and the results are pretty delightful. The bus stop above is from Ensamble Studio from Spain. More from City Lab:
Association kultur krumbach, the village’s nascent cultural organization, approached seven international architects with an unusual proposition: design a bus stop for us and we’ll give you a free vacation in Krumbach.
Every single one of them said “yes.”
By summer 2013, all the designs had been submitted and construction began. The international architects — Sou Fujimoto (Japan), Wang Shu (China), Rintala Eggertsson Architects (Norway) , Ensamble Studio (Spain), Smiljan Radic (Chile), Architecten de Vylder Vinck Taillieu (Belgium), and Alexander Brodsky (Russia) — collaborated with over 200 local designers and craftsmen to erect each distinct structure.
Bus stop by Smiljan Radic (Chile)
See the rest of the photos at City Lab.
H/t: Muni Diaries reader Charlie L.
Photo credit: Yuri Palmin, Adolf Bereuter
This is quite possibly the most San Francisco Bay to Breakers costume ever. This awesome woman dressed up as “Muni Doors Closing”, reppin’ the daily annoyance that only Muni riders can understand. Cue the annoying beeping and eye rolling from fellow passengers! And more props to her for running a 12K in this get up. Thanks to Lindsay N for the photo.
Got more “only in San Francisco” moments? Tag us on Instagram @munidiaries!
Image courtesy samsast
Before Clipper cards came into your life (“Translink” for you transit OGs), we marked our calendars by the monthly unveiling of the colorful paper Fast Pass. The paper Fast Pass was discontinued in 2011, and today we’re bringing back some of our favorite old Muni passes through the years. From the Muni Diaries vault:
Photo by Cranky Old Mission Guy
You can see lots more photos in this post. Here are some of our favs:
Photo by Steve Rhodes
Photo by cbcastro