Category: WTF: Weirdness on Muni

Fare Inspector Holds Passport and Frisks (update with SFMTA comments)

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New Passport
Photo by Flickr user Cold Cream Coffee

While things are looking apocalyptic for Muni, Muni rider Bill sent us a disturbing account of a fare inspection. Here’s what Bill wrote:

At about 6 p.m. tonight (2/1), I listened to a fare inspector on the 8x (bus #6238) ask a rider for his pass. Then the inspector asked him for ID. Once the man produced an Irish passport, the inspector then wanted to know where the man lived in San Francisco and how long he had been in this country. And then, while still holding on to his passport, she headed for the door with instructions that he follow. As the bus pulled away, she had started to pat the guy down.

Can a fare inspector request ID and hold onto it while they question and pat you down? The whole thing just didn’t seem kosher.

This sounds horrible. Positively Draconian. Did anyone else reading this see this go down? Surely a complaint can be lodged, with route, bus number, time of day, description of the POP officer in question. 311. We’ve sent questions to SFMTA for their official word on what fare inspectors can and cannot do, so stay tuned as we update this post.

We got in touch with SFMTA’s public relation officer Kristen Holland, who said that a fare inspector can ask to see your ID “for the purpose of writing a citation.” However, “The transit fare inspectors are not authorized to search Muni customers or their personal belongings.”

Another update from SFMTA: So far they have received no official complaint regarding this incident.

Category: diaries, WTF: Weirdness on Muni Tags:

‘Trains are moving, but moving slowly!’

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Goddammit, Muni! Please start working again, so we can get back to our regularly scheduled programming.*

Muni rider Christian reports on the scene this morning at Castro Street Station:

Everyone looks jaded as they experience more ‘inbound delays’ in the Castro.

The announcer says: “Trains are moving, but moving slowly!”

MTA released a statement indicating that, as of 7:55 a.m., N-Judah trains were backed up in the Sunset due to a “non-Muni accident” at Irving and Arguello. And the dominoes, they fall …

No word from MTA on reported backups at West Portal. At least it’s not raining? Yet.

* of course the irony here is that, were Muni to, you know, “work,” we’d lose half our content, especially lately.

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Raise a glass of OJ and wish Muni a better week

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Because really, how could it be any worse? And when we say better for Muni, we really mean better for the hundreds of thousands of people who rely on the public transit system every day.

But before we get there, we’ve got a little catching up to do. Over the weekend, we received the following from Muni rider Darryl:

Although it’s probably not much of a surprise, but I think this week was probably one of Muni’s worst weeks for service since Brown was in office.

There were unexplained delays 3 out of 5 days headed between Castro Station and downtown.  The usual 100-200 people waiting at rush hour.

[Friday] at 8:50am I took a snapshots [above] of almost the entire Muni fleet stuck between Van Ness and Embarcadero outbound at morning rush hour.  Luckily got to work only 15 minutes late, but I feel sorry for anybody trying to get outbound or get anywhere later.  No shuttles, no ETA, no explanation.

And to follow up on last Friday’s accident involving a pedestrian getting struck by and trapped under an M-Ocean View, Muni rider Allen showed us more from the scene, seen below. Go here for the original post, which includes photos sent in by Christopher. (The victim is alive, but reportedly in serious condition.)

The week was enough to dampen our attempt at keeping up rosy Muni dispositions. That’s saying a lot. At one point, we even condoned the use of taxis. Oh lord, forgive us, as we know not what we do.

So yes, here’s hoping the worst is behind us, and we can all get back to smelly, crowded, hot, wet trains and buses that get us to work only 12 minutes late.

Category: diaries, WTF: Weirdness on Muni Tags: ,

Muni driver calls passenger ‘retarded’

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Six Parnassus
Photo by Thomas Hawk

Wow. We received the following story from Muni rider Christine on Wednesday, and really don’t know what to say. Sometimes, you think you’ve seen or heard it all … Also, the infraction in question (running a red light) resembles a situation from just a few weeks ago. Remember when the 19-Polk ran a stop sign and crashed into a truck that had also run a stop sign? For the sake of us all, drivers, obey traffic rules. Pretty please?

Oh, and stop calling passengers names! Right now!

I generally don’t go looking for trouble. I’m just your average cranky lady trying to get home after work on Muni. But then …

I was riding the No. 6 Parnassus about 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 19 when a woman passenger pointed out to the driver that he was running a red light while turning off of Judah onto 9th Ave.

He told her: “It’s none of your business.” She said: “I’m riding this bus, so it’s my business.” And got off the bus. He called out after her: “You’re retarded!” Another passenger on the bus got into the act and shouted “Retarded bitch!” out the window at the woman.

My stop was a few blocks later, and after pulling the cord, I went up to the driver. “What is your driver number?” I asked. He pointed to the number of the bus: 5469. “No, that’s the bus number. Is that your number on your sleeve: 2725?” He nodded. I said: “Perhaps you’d like to call me retarded.” “She was rude,” said the driver. “You have no right to call a passenger retarded even if you think she’s rude or out of line,” I said.

“If you’re rude to me, I’m gonna call you retarded,” he said, raising his voice. “Go on, be rude!” I just got off the bus. “You’re not worth it,” I snapped.

Good heavens, is this what my family is paying $135 in monthly fast passes for? And the SFMTA has the nerve to propose more service cuts and fare increases? I’m filing a complaint to Muni, although I doubt it will do anything.
Category: diaries, WTF: Weirdness on Muni Tags: ,

POP Cops on the 22

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POP Litter
Photo by Flickr user Transit Nerds

Ed. note: We received the following diary from Mike of Epic Road Trips, a recent regular contributor. Thanks, Mike. We want to point out that while we generally support the work of Muni fare inspectors, we realize there are bad apples in every bunch, as this story suggests. Mike’s story happened last October, and soon after that, we’ve had some lively discussion about this issue. Has your experience with fare inspectors changed in the last few months? Let us know in the comments section.

After a trek from downtown, over the hill through Chinatown, North Beach and up to Coit Tower I then made my way back down the Filbert Steps for the 2 mile walk past Washington Square then Filbert Street up and over the hill to Fillmore and Lombard, a now familiar bus stop to me. I boarded the next 22 and nearly dozed off a coupla times.

When the bus stopped at Market and Church Streets two uniformed officers boarded. One in green – a MUNI ” Proof of Payment” (POP) COP, and one in black – SFPD. The MUNI cop positioned herself in front of the back door, the SFPDer at the front. The POP cop whipped out her citation book and said she was here to check to make sure everyone had a pass or a transfer and to please have then out and ready for inspection.

The very first person she checked was an older lady. She presented the POP cop with a Senior pass. The POP cop asked the lady how old she was and she mumbled something I could not hear, but the POP cop obviously did.

The POP cop then went on to check every passenger and finding no violators went back to the old lady. She said that since she was not old enough to be using Senior pass three things were going to happen: She was going to confiscate the pass, which she did, she was going to issue the lady two citations, one for improper use of a Senior pass and one for non payment of fair. She spoke loudly so everyone on the bus could hear her.

The old lady looked up at the POP cop and said something I could not make out. The POP cop then said loudly and sarcastically: “Oh, now you don’t speak any English”.

She then asked the woman for some sort of ID as proof of her age. The old lady seemed to not understand and the POP cop said she did not speak Spanish. She then told the women if she produced ID, she would write the citation and then everyone could go on their way. If she didn’t, then the SFPD would search her purse for her ID.

About then the old lady got up to get off the bus. She did and the POP cop followed here. The POP cop stuck by her side and SFPD cop went out the front of the bus. As the bus pulled out of the stop I could see the little old lady standing there in middle of the sidewalk flanked on either side by the two cops. Then, they were gone.

How this all ended we will never know, but I thought it a rather pathetic use of public resources.

Category: diaries, WTF: Weirdness on Muni Tags: ,

New Year Recovery

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Photo by Whole Wheat Toast

How’s 2010 on Muni treating you? Contributor Whole Wheat Toast sent us an account of his Muni ride on New Year’s Eve, and we’ve also received some…interesting NYE outfits spotted on Muni.

Whole Wheat Toast spotted a presidential-look-alike on his New Year’s Eve Muni ride and even met a Muni virgin. More from Whole Wheat Toast:

Happy New Year for everyone at the Muni Diaries! Firstly, may 2010 bring you no Muni Fails and utter fortune on the Muni! But, before that happens, of course there are some fails to talk about, right?

So, anyway, after the fireworks ended, I made my way towards the 1 bus stop at Drumm. However, by the time I got there, the bus was already leaving as it arrived. The driver didn’t want to take any chances on a break because traffic was already so bad. In fact, traffic was so bad that it took us twelve minutes to make it from the terminal down to Drumm and Sacramento.

After we made a right onto Sacramento, the operator had accidentally dropped the wires on the bus. So we were maneuvering pretty slowly, but faster than being stuck in traffic. The bus was already a bit half-full when we almost pulled over to Davis. That’s when a mob – literally – started to rush towards the bus. But the driver didn’t let anyone on, and some of us on the bus were cheering that we would be continuing on. However, the driver opened the back door, and the mob already on the bus groaned.

As the mob rushed up the back door, the driver attempted to make his way out the front door. For some reason, the door jammed, despite everyone heading towards the back, and it took him about a minute to force it open. He finally forced it open, and made his way towards the back of the bus to fix the wires. While he was doing that, the bus started to fill up even more! When he finally came back and turned on the power, the back door wouldn’t close because the bus was already so full someone had to step on the back door steps! But, eventually, the door closed miraculously despite having people still stepping on the back door. The mob on the bus cheered and we were on our way…

Read more of his account here.

Got any more tales and pics from the new year? Let us know!

Rider Joseph spotted some revealing fashion on the N on New Year’s Eve. Photo after the jump.

Read more

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