Photo diary: Ride Muni with me always?
The title of this post is a tweet from @dakotakeck. Sweet.
Category: Photos
Infrastructure pr0n: even more photos of J-Church track replacement
This set of photos of last weekend’s J-Church track replacement comes to us from Tom of Church Street Media, who adds his vote of confidence for the workers laying the tracks. Thanks, Tom!
I’ve lived at this corner for 20 years and I had a front row view of the construction — for better or worse.
I can report that the noise was HELLISH over the weekend — no sleep on Friday night, a little better on Saturday, but they seemed to finish ahead of schedule on Sunday night. I’m no expert, but from what I could see, the workers did a first-class job. The machine operators moved the rails and materials with expert precision and with a minimum of wasted effort. There were no workers standing around as we have come to expect to see on other public works projects.
I am happy to report that the hassle and confusion was worth it! The line is much quieter at the intersection and there is little vibration compared to before. I give Muni credit where credit is due.
More photos after the jump.
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Weekend Photos: Faster, Muni, Faster!
Photo by Flickr user Daniell Lefebvre
I was on the 1-California today, and the driver tried for what seemed like forever to get the passengers to move back in order for a wheelchair passenger to get off the bus. There certainly can be ways to speed up boarding, and Streetsblog SF has a video and great story about some simple ways to improve boarding to make Muni more efficient.
“Muni spends about half of its time on any given run not moving, so the bus is either stopped at a light or the bus is stopped at a bus stop. Speeding up boarding would be hugely important in getting Muni in being more reliable and faster,” Tom Radulovich, executive director of Livable City, said in the video.
In other news, transit funding is nowhere in sight as the bill dies (thanks, Arnie), and the 14-Mission has the dubious award of being the most dangerous line (Examiner).
Watch out this weekend as the J-Church construction impacts traffic and Muni, starting tonight (SFAppeal).
Have a great weekend!
Photo by Flickr user Patrick Boury
Photo by Flickr user Patrick Boury
Photo by Flickr user captin_nod
Photo diary: A virtual world aboard Muni?
From Muni rider Anthony:
If Cloud from Final Fantasy 7 was a kid, this kid would be him.
*Scratches head*
Who?
A little internet search showed that Cloud is a young man with what I previously thought was an impossible-in-real-life hairdo, which this cool young man has replicated to perfection.
Thanks, Anthony!
Photo diary: The real deal
Photo by Muni rider Bryan.
Weekend Photos: Any time of day
Before we get started, yes, yet another massive meltdown is in progress today. Some sort of total breakdown of communications and wiring (and blood and guts and fecal matter) happened in the underground tunnel somewhere. Outbound N-Judah and J-Church trains were turned back inbound at Church and Duboce. I bet a lot of people are very, very happy about that.
But not all Muni goings-on this week were disastrous and FAIL-infused. Streetsblog SF filled us in on last weekend’s Save Muni summit, and commented on the challenges of organizing Muni riders. This while MTA began another outreach attempt, to notify the public of more budget-balancing decisions facing the agency for the next two fiscal years (you know, because it was such a joy settling this year’s books). One town hall took place on Wednesday, and there’s another one tomorrow at 10 a.m. at MTA headquarters, 1 South Van Ness.
We learned this week that an attempt to have voters approve of removing a wage-floor for Muni operators is moving forward (SFGate), sponsored by Supervisor Sean Elsbernd (we hope it’s just a coincidence that Elsbernd’s parents’ house caught on fire [Examiner] this week also).
Later in the week, we learned (via SF Appeal) that MTA head Nat Ford is defying Mayor (still?) Newsom and putting Sunday parking meters back on the bargaining table as a means for the agency to generate revenue. We’ll just have to see how that one turns out. And Streetsblog SF asked whether transit cuts and fare hikes are causing more and more San Franciscans to ride their bike instead. We’re all for it, but Muni still needs lots of fixing.
The Examiner also reports that Muni’s on-time rate fell for a second-straight quarter, to 72.3. Almost three out of every four buses and LRVs is on-time? That many, eh?
Finally, and perhaps tragically (but definitely puzzling), ABC 7 reported Thursday that Muni is investigating reports that a middle school student fell out of a moving bus. Ouch. Hope the kid’s okay.
We leave you with more beautiful images of times when Muni did work, taken by one of our favorite Flickr photogs, angryf. Have a great weekend!
All photos by angryf