About BART’s poop-covered escalators


Photo by Jeremy Brooks

On Wednesday, SFGate ran a story about human waste being the cause of so many broken escalators at downtown San Francisco’s BART stations. You might want to wait to eat breakfast until well after reading this story.

The most vomit-inducing passage:

All those biological excretions can gum up the wheels and gears of BART’s escalators, shutting them down for long periods of extended repairs, increasing station cleaning costs and creating an unpleasant aroma for morning commuters.

Read on, if your stomach will allow.

FTA Awards Muni with $21.4 Million


Photo by THE Holy Hand Grenade!

Streetsblog SF reports that the SFMTA, which runs Muni, has been awarded $21.4 million to upgrade its fleet with new buses, and make improvements to a specific route.

From Streetsblog’s report:

Muni, which has the oldest transit fleet in the nation, will be able to replace 18 twenty-year-old buses with low-floor, biodiesel hybrid buses using the $15 million State of Good Repair grant, according to a news release. Another $6.4 million, which comes from the Livability grant, will be used for these improvements along the 8x Bayshore Express line as part of the 8x Mobility Maximization project:

  • Coloring of existing dedicated transit lanes;
  • Transit signal priority;
  • Pre-payment fare collection;
  • Information panel and transit arrival prediction signs;
  • Vehicle branding and enhanced stop identification; and
  • Cameras on buses to capture vehicles illegally occupying transit-only lanes.

Overall, Bay Area transit agencies fared well, also. In addition to Muni’s take, BART, AC Transit, SamTrans, and the Valley Transportation Authority are set to receive a total of $45.7 million for transit improvements.

Read more at Streetsblog SF.

Next Stop … A Tribute to NYC’s Miss Subways


Photo: The first Miss Subways winner, Mona Freeman, via the Miss Subways Facebook Page.

New York City Subway stations have a specific type of beauty: underground urban sensibility mixed with iconic ceramic plaques and tile mosaics. We wouldn’t have thought they’d serve as the backdrop for a beauty contest, but we’re glad to be proven wrong.

For decades beginning in the 1940s, the Subway stations paid tribute to more than 200 winners of the Miss Subways contest. To enter, you just needed to be a lady, a New York City resident, and a Subway rider. The lovely winners’ photos, accomplishments, and aspirations were featured on posters throughout the transit system. New York artist Fiona Gardner and journalist Amy Zimmer tracked down 40 of the former beauty queens, photographed them, and plan to tell their life stories in an upcoming book, Meet Miss Subways. The duo still needs funding to complete their book — here’s more info on the Miss Subways Kickstarter project.

We have to admit, this unbelievably cool project has left us with a little city envy. Can we have a Miss Muni, please?

Take a Photo of Yourself With New Interactive Ad on Muni Shelters

Have you seen the new interactive ads by the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Muni shelters? Rider D sent in a tip, and we went to the Muni shelter on Sutter and Stockton to take a short video of it. According to D’s email:

At the outbound 38 Geary stop on Powell St. is an interactive ad for the Monterey Bay Aquarium. You use the touch screen to take a picture of yourself via the built in camera, choose a background, then use the text code generated to load the ‘postcard’ onto your smart phone!

These ads are by the company Engine Company 1. The idea is to transform the shelters into a “virtual aquarium.” Here is a post with more photos of the ads and a little more about their idea.

Playing with this ad was pretty fun (reminds me of the Yahoo neighborhood game last year). Have you seen other notable pieces from Madison Avenue on our Muni shelters? Comment away, please.

Your Weekend Transit Advisory

N and J Line Rail and Street Improvements
From 8 p.m., Friday through 5 a.m., Monday, the SFMTA will continue construction for the Church and Duboce Project with track work and street paving on Church Street between Duboce and Market streets. The Carl Street project will include track replacement on Carl Street between Willard Street and Arguello Boulevard, including demolition. N Judah bus shuttles will be in place.

Track work will also be done on Church Street between 22nd and 23rd streets. This will require the use of bus shuttles on the J Church Line between Balboa Park and Market Street all day Saturday.

Sunday Streets – Bayview/Dogpatch
The sixth of 10 Sunday Streets events will be held this Sunday along the northbound 3rd Street. This event will begin at Mendell Plaza between 3rd Street and Oakdale Avenue. The route will be available for recreational activities from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event is free to all participants.

For further event details, please visit www.sundaystreetssf.com

The following Muni line and routes will be affected:

· T Third Street
· 10 Townsend
· 19 Polk
· 22 Fillmore
· 23 Monterey
· 24 Divisadero
· 44 O’Shaughnessy
· 48 Quintara-24th Street
· 54 Felton

Bayview Music Festival
The 3rd annual Bayview Music Festival in conjunction with this week’s Sunday Streets, presented by the 3rd Street Corridor Project and Bayview Merchants will be held on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oakdale Avenue.

Muni bus route 44 O’Shaughnessy will be affected.

This Sunday! Gettin’ Around: A Muni-Themed Photo Workshop


Photo: sixsixty

Free on Sunday? Help us pay homage, the analog way, to one of the world’s most photogenic urban landscapes. RSVP as “Going” right on the Facebook invite to secure your spot. Or, you can call, email, or RSVP in person to the Lomography store.

Muni Diaries and Lomography SF are teaming up for a Muni-themed photo workshop. First, we’ll go over beginners’ tips and tricks for analog street and transportation photography. We’ll focus on how to shoot on Muni — one of our fair city’s best muses — and outside of it. Then, we’ll turn you loose with a fine camera — La Sardina or Diana Mini — so you can put those tips into practice ASAP. If you’ve got your own 35mm Lomography camera, you’re more than welcome to bring it and shoot with that!

When:
1 p.m., Sunday, July 22
Start to finish should be roughly three hours.
Workshop starts at the Lomography Gallery Store in Union Square:
309 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA
(415) 248-0096

Cost:
$10 per person or $7 for students, plus up to an additional $16 for various developing/digitizing/printing options.

But wait, there’s more:
Heads up, sharpest shooters: the best photo shot at the workshop wins a prize.

Hope to see you there!

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