Category: News

BART Photos on Flickr

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Pink plastic bags
Photo by Flickr user echoes71

Hi everyone,

Though BART Diaries was begun by the same people who started and moderate Muni Diaries, we’re a whole new beast. We’re about as different as the systems we write about. Sure, Muni and BART have the same goal in mind — moving people for a still relatively low fee from Point A to Point B. But anyone who’s taken a ride (or been taken for a ride, as it were) on both systems knows the vast contrast between the two systems.

So here on BART Diaries, we’ll need to reach out every now and then, to remind you that you make this site what it is. It is your stories, your photos, your news tips, that will fill the posts here.

On that note, we’d like to announce our very own place on Flickr for BART photos. This is a place you can tag your BART photos for potential use as a photo diary, or to be considered for “stock photos,” the more generic pictures we use to enhance almost every post.

So keep on sending your stories to us (bartdiaries@gmail.com) and be sure and tag your Flickr photos to the BART Photos group. Help us spread the word, out to the ends of the lines (talking about you, Millbrae, Richmond, Pittsburg, Dublin and Pleasanton, and Fremont), and let’s shape this into the awesome site it has the potential to be. Happy commuting and storytelling!

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Commuter Nation at Embarcadero tomorrow morning

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Just got this press-releasey bit from Commuter Nation, announcing a thingymabob they’re doing tomorrow morning at Embarcadero. This could benefit you if you commute on a regular basis and are lucky enough to have a jobby-job:

San Franciscans can cut commuting costs by 40% with Commuter Nation

What: Commuter Nation campaign to educate commuters in the greater San Francisco metropolitan area about commuter benefits. Street teams will hand out educational and engaging tools that commuters can share with their employer. Additionally, commuters will be directed to visit http://www.commuternation.com, a high-impact online experience allowing commuters to entertainingly spread the word to their employers, coworkers, friends, and family through a personalized tour of Commuter Nation (think “Elf Yourself!”).

Who: Commuter Nation is an initiative to bring awareness and encourage commuting employees to learn about and participate in commuter benefits through their employer. Commuter Nation is an initiative by Commuter Check the leading provider of commuter benefits solutions designed to accommodate employers of all sizes and their employees’ commuting preferences.

When: Wednesday, September 9th Commuter Nation Street Teams in Embarcadero Station from 7 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. & 4 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

Where: Street Teams will be in Embarcadero Station, San Francisco.

Why: Amidst recession panic and the recent Muni & BART fare increases, your readers are most certainly unhappy about paying more money each month to commute. Yet, most are unaware that they could decrease the burden of commuting costs and mitigate the impact of the fare hike by participating in commuter benefits through their employer. Commuter Nation gives them the tools they need to understand and effectively communicate the relevance and timeliness of providing commuter benefits in the workplace.

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Commuter Nation at Embarcadero tomorrow morning

Leave a comment

Just got this press-releasey bit from Commuter Nation, announcing a thingymabob they’re doing tomorrow morning at Embarcadero. This could benefit you if you commute on a regular basis and are lucky enough to have a jobby-job:

San Franciscans can cut commuting costs by 40% with Commuter Nation

What: Commuter Nation campaign to educate commuters in the greater San Francisco metropolitan area about commuter benefits. Street teams will hand out educational and engaging tools that commuters can share with their employer. Additionally, commuters will be directed to visit http://www.commuternation.com, a high-impact online experience allowing commuters to entertainingly spread the word to their employers, coworkers, friends, and family through a personalized tour of Commuter Nation (think “Elf Yourself!”).

Who: Commuter Nation is an initiative to bring awareness and encourage commuting employees to learn about and participate in commuter benefits through their employer. Commuter Nation is an initiative by Commuter Check the leading provider of commuter benefits solutions designed to accommodate employers of all sizes and their employees’ commuting preferences.

When: Wednesday, September 9th Commuter Nation Street Teams in Embarcadero Station from 7 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. & 4 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

Where: Street Teams will be in Embarcadero Station, San Francisco.

Why: Amidst recession panic and the recent Muni & BART fare increases, your readers are most certainly unhappy about paying more money each month to commute. Yet, most are unaware that they could decrease the burden of commuting costs and mitigate the impact of the fare hike by participating in commuter benefits through their employer. Commuter Nation gives them the tools they need to understand and effectively communicate the relevance and timeliness of providing commuter benefits in the workplace.

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Boy Stabbed on His First Solo Muni Ride

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MUNI to City Center
Photo by Flickr user transguyjay

An 11-year-old boy was stabbed on his first solo Muni ride on Tuesday evening “by an apparently homeless man in an unprovoked attack while riding home from school,” Matier and Ross reports in SFGate. This story stopped me in my tracks – I’m sure this is every parent’s nightmare, and it happened on the 49, which I take more than any other line.

The boy had been in the intensive care unit at SF General for stabbing wounds to his liver and stomach, but he’s since been listed in good condition, SFGate reports.

More from Bay City News via SFAppeal:

The boy was riding home alone from baseball practice after school at the time, police spokeswoman Sgt. Lyn Tomioka said.

At about 6 p.m., as the bus neared 19th and Mission streets, a man described as “scruffy-looking” and possibly homeless attacked him at the back of the bus, stabbing him once, according to Tomioka.

She said the boy was sitting with a balloon on his lap at the time.

“It was an unprovoked attack on an innocent child,” she said, adding that there had been no conversation between the boy and the suspect, and no altercation between the suspect and anyone else on the bus, leading up to the attack.

Surveillance video on this particular bus was not functioning at the time of the attack, according to media reports.

The boy’s mother told Matier and Ross that “Muni is very dangerous.” I hate thinking that our daily transportation – the only transit option for many of us – is an unsafe place to be. But the horror that happened to this boy and the violent stories that we’ve received in the past leave me feeling that maybe our buses aren’t as safe as they should be.

Back in March, we learned that SFPD billed Muni a cool $12 million to “provide police services” and fund traffic enforcement. Eve Batey at the SFAppeal published an excellent report detailing what the SFPD is supposed to be doing on Muni. Would it have helped if we really saw cops regularly on the bus? Has it really come to this?

The police are working on a composite sketch of the attacker. Meanwhile, witnesses are asked to call police at (415) 575-4444 or text 84741, then typing “SFPD” and the tip.

Category: News

M-Ocean View Strikes Pedestrian (update)

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muni M train
Photo by Flickr user dylan yee

Update (1:07 p.m.): SF Appeal reports that the M is back in service.

Original post: Sadly, we could make a template post for Muni accidents, and get our money’s worth here lately.

Reports are coming over Twitter of a pedestrian struck in the Ingleside by a Muni Metro, M-Ocean View:

  • SFCityInsider: Muni service on M-Ocean View disrupted after hitting pedestrian. She’s at hospital with non-life-theatening injuries.
  • KCBSNews: SF MUNI accident. Light rail vehicle hit a pedestrian at Broad and Plymouth. Bus shuttles in lieu of M Ocean View Metro line for now.
  • SFTotalTraffic: Delays on MUNI: M-Line. LRV vs. Pedestrian. Broad and Plymouth. Shuttles in place.
  • SFAppeal: M Ocean View Service Disrupted Due To Accident With Pedestrian http://bit.ly/qZvjQ According to MTA, “the female pedestrian was transported to San Francisco General Hospital with injuries described by the San Francisco Fire Department as non-life threatening.”

We’ll update this post with more info as it becomes available.

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Going Underground This Weekend

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Bay Bridge Construction
Photo by Flickr user planetlight

They say the ferries are nice, too. But site this isn’t Ferry Diaries (idea!).

This post serves as a reminder to readers that with the Bay Bridge closure that begins this Thursday and extends through to next Tuesday morning, BART will be running 24-hour service, with some details that are worth understanding.

  • First, the special schedule begins Friday, Sept. 4 (overnight, what some call Thursday night) and lasts through Monday, Sept. 7.
  • On Monday, during the day, BART will be operating on a Saturday schedule.
  • From 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. on those days, trains will be spaced roughly one hour apart.
  • Trains will only operate 24 hours per day out of the following stations:

East Bay


San Francisco and Peninsula

After knowledge, preparation is power. If you need to move around a lot this weekend, or to bolt out of town, do so armed with the knowledge that you don’t have to know the way to San Jose and back up, around the Bay, to get where you’re going. Oh, and happy Labor Day from BART Diaries!

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