Muni passengers school bad driver

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Oh, this is just delicious. Last week, Muni rider EC let the whole world know that some Muni passengers aren’t taking any shit. No sirree.

As to the situation, EC writes: “People have gotten off my train to yell at this lady who almost ran a pedestrian over.”

As to the photo above, she writes: “The gray haired grandma who chewed her out is my hero for today.”

As it should be. Good luck praying that wrath away.

Bad driver! Bad!

Interactive map shows where SF’s streetcars used to go

interactive street car map chris carvin muni diaries

Where did San Francisco’s streetcar lines go before our time? Designer Chris Arvin used information from the SFMTA photo archive, OpenSFHistory, and two other historic books to create an interactive map of our city’s public transit history. You can choose a decade—1940s or 1960s and hover over the map to see old streetcar routes. Arvin created the map using MapBox.

When you hover over the map, you might see some unfamiliar streetcar route names (some of them featured on Randolph Ruiz’s 1932 street car map).

Arvin shared some thoughts with Hoodline about what motivated him to create the map:

Since I’ve moved to San Francisco and fallen in love with the city, I’ve caught glimpses of the history of our public transit in many places—SFMTA’s posters at transit stops, sites like Old SF (and Hoodline!) and even seeing the partial remnants of tracks in the road in Potrero. There’s something I love about seeing old photos of street corners I immediately recognize, but in such a different context.

Gotta love people who love San Francisco! You can read the rest of the interview on Hoodline and play with the map here.

BART cops arrest, punch young black man

Update (10:10 a.m.): A BART spokesperson said in a series of tweets that there had been a report of a possible armed robbery and that a 22-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of resisting arrest and battery on a peace officer. The case has been referred to internal affairs for investigation and apparently there is footage of the incident. At least one of the officers involved was wearing a body camera.

Original post: In the video above and other videos found on the Hunger For Justice SF Facebook page, BART police are seen last night subduing a young black man in handcuffs at the Embarcadero BART station. The officers then punched the young man while he was on the ground in handcuffs.

In response to Friday’s incident, Hunger For Justice SF has planned a protest today at 2 p.m. at Embarcadero Station to demand that SFPD release the young men.

h/t William Fitzgerald

How to survive a crowded BART train

BART’s ridership is at an all-time high, and the agency reminds us in this commonsense video on how to survive a crowded BART train. I hope at least a few more people will now actually put their backpacks between their feet on a crowded train!

Other tips include riding the first or last train, offering your seat to riders in need, and for god’s sake, don’t try to force the door open. Even if it doesn’t hold up the train, you’ll die a thousand deaths from the shade that your fellow riders will be throwing at you.

Thanks to your contribution, we have a few more tips to add:

  1. Don’t, whatever you do, ride shoeless on BART. Gross.
  2. Transport your refrigeration appliances (large or large-ish) during non-commute hours.
  3. Quit that manspreading (or woman-spreading)—it’s just not necessary.
  4. Wait until you get home to do your nails (Princess Dog’s pet-icure can wait, too).

Got any other tips for surviving BART? Our inbox (muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com) is wide open!

Supervisor candidate wants to add new Mission BART station

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How would you like a new BART station? District 9 supervisor candidate Joshua Arce is announcing his new plan this morning for the south of Cesar Chavez area of the Mission, and it involves a new BART station. No, not the movie set BART station in the photo above; Arce wants to add a new BART station on Mission and 30th streets.

Arce is set to announce his “Mission South of Cesar Chavez Sustainable Neighborhood Plan” with California Assemblyman David Chiu and BART Board Director Nicholas Josefowitz. His press release says that the plan will “build thousands of units of housing affordable for all San Franciscans, provide long term support for small businesses.”

The event will be held at the Safeway Parking Lot (3350 Mission St.) at 10 a.m. today.

Please don’t try this: A Dutch man’s handy transit card fix

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Is your commute just too complicated? Consider the extreme measures — or gasp maybe don’t — one Dutch public transit rider went to to make it easier to pass through a metro turnstile.

According to the Mirror, Tom van Oudenaarden, the 37-year-old owner of a body piercing studio, allowed someone to implant the chip from an Oyster transit card in his hand, enabling him to use it to get through security gates sans plastic.

“They had to cut open my skin and make a hole under it that would fit a silicon disk of 1.4 inch wide by 0.3 inch deep,” he told the paper. “In the silicon disk we then placed the chip of the public transport card. It took seven stitches, so it hurt quite a bit but it was worth it.”

Hmm, sounds real nice and all, but I’d rather skip surgery and fumble for my Clipper card. I mean, right?

Photo by London Chow

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