Muni and Wendy MacNaughton’s Meanwhile in San Francisco

wendy macnaughton meanwhile in san francisco muni
Image via Meanwhile, in San Francisco

We met artist Wendy MacNaughton back in 2010 when she illustrated a series of gorgeous, whimsical, and very San Francisco drawings done on Muni and BART. Since then, she’s done loads of amazing work, including Pen and Ink: Tattoos and the Stories Behind Them, written with Muni Diaries Live alum Isaac Fitzgerald (watch his story here). Her latest book, Meanwhile, in San Francisco, is an ode to the city we all know and love. Featured prominently at the beginning of the book, of course, is the personal story of a Muni driver.

The illustrations shows a day in the life of a Muni operator in his own words. From Wendy: “The driver is my neighbor, Edmundo. he lives just up the street from me – so I asked if I could join him at work. I went at the crack of dawn with him one day – before 5 a.m., I think it was.”

We asked Wendy in an earlier story about why she draws on public transit: Read more

Transit News: Muni bus catches fire, alleged DUI driver arrested after crash into Muni stop

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Photo by lynnfriedman

In this week’s transit news:

  • Muni bus catches on fire in Rincon Hill neighborhood, no passengers were onboard (KTVU)
  • Alleged DUI driver arrested after crash into Muni stop (ABC Local)
  • Another proposal to give us late night transit hope (SFist)
  • Central subway cost controversy, reported by SF Weekly’s Joe Eskenazi (SFWeekly)
  • Muni floats focus on low-income riders (SFBay)

TBT: Ever heard of Muni’s 1-Sutter?

muni tbt 1 sutter

Wait, the 1-Sutter? We polled our readers about what they knew of this curious line, as seen in the undated photo via Flickr user Muni Better Late Than Never. Reader Lisa point out that the San Francisco public library has a partial list of Market Street Railroad route names, which includes the 1-Sutter, which had long been changed to the 1-California.

Reader Gary Soup commented about the origins of this curious little car:

The 1 Sutter-California was a motor coach line from July 1949 (when it replaced the #1 Streetcar line) until January 1951, when it was replaced by a trolley coach. In the late 70s the outer portion of the line was combined with the (newly electrified) #55 Sacramento motor coach line of fond memory to form the current #1 California. The #1 never ran on Market Street; the photo is obviously of an excursion or historic motor coach event long after the fact, judging from the presence of the vehicle with the creamsicle livery.

This post originally appeared in Muni Time Capsule. Got a Muni throw-back moment we should know about? Email us and tell us all about it!

Video: Train nearly takes out senator on platform during safety conference

You know those yellow dotted lines on the platform? They’re there for a good reason. In this hilarious video, Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal held a press conference on a platform at the Milford Metro-North station to discuss its safety record and a train nearly takes him out.

Fittingly the train speeds by and knocks everything over just as Blumenthal said, “Safety, as you know, is paramount.”

via Rider Amy, who found the video on Gawker

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