On the bus: “100 Muni Stories” Contest Winners!

 

Have you seen the two winners of the 100 Days, 100 Muni Stories contest on the bus today?

Earlier this summer, we hosted a “100 Days, 100 Muni Stories” contest to celebrate Muni’s centennial. The prize for your awesome Muni tales? Your own spotlight on the bus! We looked through all the entries past and present, including submissions and tweets, and recruited Isaac Fitzgerald, the managing editor of The Rumpus, as the guest judge.

Our “100 Days, 100 Muni Stories” winners are @scenechangego and @jeannabarrett, and you can see their tweets on buses starting this week!

In case you are new to Muni Diaries, we are just three blog nerds chained to our laptops in our living rooms, making a website for stories that happen on the bus. That is, we are an independent website and not affiliated with the SFMTA. So we were as surprised and excited as anyone can be when the SFMTA said we can have some ad space on the bus to feature your best stories and tweets!

Here’s Jeanna’s winning tweet:

Muni Diaries is your space to share stories, tweets, and photos that happen on public transit, so thank you to everyone who submitted to the contest and the site. Let’s blow up the party talk some more!

Muni Diaries “100 Days, 100 Muni Stories” graphic design is by Lisa Wong Jackson. Check her out at Good on Paper.

Your Weekend Transit Advisory: Folsom Street Fair Sunday

Honey, if you really love me you would buy me a ball gag made from a mooncake, because this is what’s happening this weekend in your weekend transit advisory:

Chinatown Autumn Moon Festival
The 22nd annual Chinatown Autumn Moon Festival will take place on Saturday and Sunday between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. each day. For event details, please visit www.moonfestival.org

The following Muni routes will be affected:

    10 Townsend
    12 Folsom-Pacific
    1 California

Roadworks Street Fair

On Saturday the 9th Annual Roadworks presented by the San Francisco Center for the Books will take place from noon to 5 p.m. on Rhode Island Street between 16th and 17th streets. For event details, please visit sfcb.org/events/roadworks.

The following Muni routes will be affected

    10 Townsend
    19 Polk

Cole Valley Fair

On Sunday the 10th Cole Valley Fair will take place. For more details, please visit www.bazaarbizarre.org

The following Muni lines and routes will be affected

    N Judah
    6 Parnassus
    37 Corbett
    43 Masonic

Folsom Street Fair

On Sunday the Folsom Street Fair will be held from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The following Muni routes will be affected:

    9 San Bruno
    12 Folsom-Pacific
    19 Polk
    47 Van Ness

Bay Citizen: Muni Issues Accurate On-Time Report

The Bay Citizen reports that the SFMTA has issued an accurate on-time report, after being called out by the publication in July that the agency was boosting these numbers. From SFMTA’s latest report, Muni’s vehicles were on time 57.2 percent of the time in August. “That number was slightly down from July when the on-time rate was 60.4 percent, according to the report, which covered the first eight months of 2012,” the Bay Citizen writes.

In July, the Bay Citizen also reported that then-CEO Nat Ford and another former CEO, Michael Burns, received bonuses because of these inflated rates.

From the Bay Citizen:

[Paul] Rose, the SFMTA spokesman attributed the 57.2 percent on-time rate in August to a combination of bus driver absences, rickety old vehicles, a Muni operator shortage and special events such as the America’s Cup yacht race that spread service too thin.

Muni officials have long said that on-time performance isn’t the most important measure. Passengers, they reason, would rather that buses arrive consistently every five minutes rather than adhering to specific scheduled times.

On Friday, Muni also released other performance measures, such as how often buses bunch up together and create long waits for riders at bus stops. The number crunchers found that buses that were less than two minutes behind each other nearly 6 percent of the time.

What do you think: what metric is the most important to you as a bus rider?

Your Weekend Transit Advisories

Here they are, your weekend transit advisories. Be advised, and enjoy thyself.

N and J Line Rail and Street Improvements
From 8 p.m., Friday through 5 a.m., Monday, the SFMTA will continue the Church & Duboce project which will include track replacement on Duboce Avenue between Church and Webster streets as well as electric, sewer and other civic improvement work on Duboce Avenue between Steiner and Fillmore streets, on Fillmore Street between Duboce Avenue and Hermann Street, and on Church Street between Duboce Avenue and Market Street. The SFMTA personnel will also continue the Carl Street project which will include track replacement for the Sunset Tunnel, street repairs on the north side of Carl Street between Stanyan and Cole streets, as well as sewer work and manhole repairs on the center of Carl Street between Hillway Avenue and Willard Street and overhead wire repair work at various locations along Carl Street.

Opera at the Ballpark
On Saturday San Francisco Opera’s performance of Verdi’s Rigoletto will be broadcast live at AT&T Park. The show will begin at 8 p.m. For event details, please visit http://sfopera.com

Muni customers may purchase their fare in advance. Muni fares will be sold at the following locations and during the time specified:

    Embarcadero Metro Station — 5 to 8 p.m.
    AT&T Park — 3 p.m. to approximately 11:05 p.m.

Additional Muni Metro service will be provided to supplement S Shuttles and the existing T Third service to the ballpark.

Giant Race Half Marathon
The 2012 Giant Race Half Marathon and 10K and 5K races will take place on Sunday along The Embarcadero, Fisherman’s Wharf and the Marina. The 5K race will start at 8 a.m., the Half Marathon and 10K races will start at 8:30 a.m. For more event details, please visit www.race-sfgiants.com

The race will start south of AT&T Park, continue north on The Embarcadero, west along Fisherman’s Wharf, through Fort Mason and the Presidio, returning along the same route to conclude inside AT&T Park.

The following Muni routes and lines will be affected:

· F Market & Wharves
· K Ingleside
· N Judah
· T Third
· 19 Polk
· 28 19th Avenue
· 30 Stockton
· 39 Coit
· 47 Van Ness
· 49 Van Ness-Mission

Dreamforce 2012 Gala
The Dreamforce Gala will take place in the Civic Center next Wednesday, Sept. 19 beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Muni route 19 Polk will be affected.

49ers Football Game
The San Francisco 49ers will host their first home game on Sunday, against the Detroit Lions starting at 5:20 p.m. at the Candlestick Park.

Muni offers several ways to get to Candlestick Park from locations throughout San Francisco. There are four Muni Express routes and two Shuttles.

The Muni Express route is Special Event Fare Service
Adult fare: $12 roundtrip
Youth/Senior/Disabled fare: $10 roundtrip
Muni monthly pass, Passport or CityPass Special Event Add-on fare: $8 roundtrip (adult and discount pass holders)

The Candlestick Shuttles are regular fare service, $2 adult per trip and $.75 for youth/senior/disabled per trip.

In order for Clipper customers with a monthly pass to obtain the add-on fare discount, at least $8 in cash value must be loaded to their Clipper cards prior to boarding the special event Muni service.

Customers can load their cards online at www.clippercard.com (please allow at least five days for processing), or at one of the participating Clipper vendors or ticket vending machines in a Muni Metro station. Please go to www.sfmta.com for fare details.

For service to and from the game, T Third customers should transfer at the Gilman/Paul station to the 87 Candlestick Shuttle, which operates directly between the station and Candlestick Park.

Muni customers may purchase their fare in advance. SFMTA staff will sell Muni fares from 2:20 p.m. at the following locations:

· Balboa Park BART Station
· Sutter Street/Sansome Street

Pre-game Service:
· 75X Candlestick Express – from Balboa Park BART
· 77X Candlestick Express – from California and Van Ness
· 78X Candlestick Express – from California and Funston
· 79X Candlestick Express – from Sutter and Sansome
· 86 Candlestick Shuttle – from Bacon and San Bruno
· 87 Candlestick Shuttle – from Third Street and Gillman, T Third Station

Post-game Service:
· 75X Candlestick Express – to Balboa Park BART
· 77X Candlestick Express – to Van Ness and North Point
· 78X Candlestick Express – to California and Funston
· 79X Candlestick Express – to Kearny and Sutter
· 86 Candlestick Shuttle – to Bacon and San Bruno
· 87 Candlestick Shuttle – to Third Street and Gillman, T Third Station

79X Candlestick Express Re-route
The southbound 79X Candlestick Express, which provides express service to the 49ers game from downtown, will be re-routed all season due to Central Subway construction on Stockton and 4th streets. Customers traveling to the game can board the 79X Candlestick Express at the following locations:

· Sutter and Sansome

· Sutter and Kearny

Mason and Geary
Cyril Magnin and Market
5th Street and Mission
5th Street and Howard
5th Street and Folsom

The southbound buses will then travel express to Candlestick Park from 5th and Folsom. Northbound buses will remain on their regular route.

Transit News: More BART trains, GGT won’t run sketch ads, BART-plus changes, Muni merch


Photo by Confetti

  • BART Running Four More Trains Through SF Weekday Evenings (BCN via SF Appeal)
  • Unlike Muni, Golden Gate Transit Refuses to Run Jihad Ads (SF Weekly)
  • Infested BART: Inspection Reports Reveal Serious Pest Problems (SF Weekly)
  • BART Plus may be minus Muni transfers (SF Examiner)
  • Zazzle, City Prevent Transit Blog N-Judah Chronicles From Selling Muni Gear (SF Weekly)
  • Muni service ratings slip fast as buses slow (SF Examiner)

Terrifying Account of Sexual Assault on Muni


Photo by Mike Dillon

Blogger Brittney Gilbert, formerly the blog producer with CBS5, wrote a first-person account of a horrifying sexual assault on Muni. From her personal blog:

The bus continued to lurch down busy Market Street. I pulled the cord to signal that I wanted off when the bus was due to stop again at 5th and Market.

I stood a few seconds before the bus came to a halt, a clear indiction that I was getting out and off the bus. When the bus stopped the man to my right swiveled his legs around rather than stand, so I took a wide step to get around him and as I did he grabbed me between my legs.

Without thinking I turned and swung my heavy purse containing a server’s book, a hardback journal and loose, sharp pens at his head, but barely connected. I think the purse grazed his face. I screamed FUCK YOU, also without thinking, and fled off the bus.

Anyone would be shaken up by something so horrifying and violating. When Brittney went to report the crime, she was almost discouraged from it. You can read the rest of her account on her personal blog.

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