Category: News

The federal government is considering revising safety rules for city buses because of overweight passengers, reports USAToday (via @sal_castaneda).

The Federal Transit Authority (FTA) proposes raising the assumed average weight per bus passenger from 150 pounds to 175 pounds, which could mean that across the country, fewer people will be allowed on a city transit bus. The transit authority, which regulates how much weight a bus can carry, also proposes adding an additional quarter of a square foot of floor space per passenger. The changes are being sought “to acknowledge the expanding girth of the average passenger,” the agency says.

The assumed average bus rider weight is still lighter than other passengers, though. “The Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees airline travel, gauges average passenger weight at 190 pounds in the summer and 195 pounds in the winter. The Coast Guard’s assumed average weight is 185 pounds for boats and ferries,” reports USAToday.

I guess we can rest easy for now, since San Francisco was rated the leanest city in America in Men’s Health magazine’s 2010 survey of 100 U.S. cities. Phew. Gotta get on that treadmill tomorrow!

Photo by Mark Denton

The morning-after St. Patrick’s Day tweets are worth the craziness on the streets. Here’s my favorite Tweet From Last Night: “Dudebro at the Muni wearing St Pats gear, with a limp and an odor of shame.” (high five to @jesse_hirsch). I hope to use the phrase “odor of shame” and “dudebro” at least once this weekend.

We added to the Muni Time Capsule vault this week. Check out photos from when the J-Church (and other now-Metro lines) ran aboveground on Market Street.

In Muni news this week:

• BART Budget Looking Good, Surplus Expected for Current Fiscal Year (SF Appeal)
• Man Jumped and Beaten by Gang After Exiting Muni Bus (SF Appeal)
• Powell Street BART Station to “Modernize,” Dump Asbestos (SF Appeal)
• Corroding Muni tunnels have never been seismically tested (SF Examiner)
• Can Nat Ford Keep His Job as SFMTA Executive Director? (Streetsblog SF)

Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook so you can get your daily Muni musing along with your friends’ updates. And follow Muni Diaries on Twitter for that gritty underbelly of life on Muni. Enjoy these photos and your weekend!

Photo by Bautik Joshi

Photo by Brian Brooks

Photo by Steve Rhodes

Photo by SF à gogo

Photo by skronk!

MrEricSir has a suggestion for making Muni more efficient:

Anyone who regularly travels on Muni Metro through [the intersection at Church and Duboce], or the similar intersection at Ulloa and West Portal, can testify that these intersections are a major source of Muni Metro delays. (The West Portal intersection is actually worse, since Muni Metro has a signal but other traffic does not.)

If we really want to be a “transit-first” city, doesn’t it make sense to have traffic signals that give preference to transit? Especially in the case of Muni Metro, which is supposed to be “rapid” but when mixed with traffic is anything but.

Of course, that would mean that all of San Francisco would have to agree with the idea that public transportation sits atop a hierarchy, above cars, bikes, pedestrians, baby strollers, unicyclists, roller bladers, Segways, etc., etc., ad infinitum. Still, we like Eric’s idea. You can read the rest of what he’s got to say about it here.

What do you think?