Win $150 in the Endanger Bus Photo Contest


Photo by Todd Gilens

You might have seen some beautifully wrapped buses roaming around town in the last few months. These buses are the core of the EndangerBus project by artist Todd Gilens.

Instead of thinking about buses an advertising space, Gilens wondered if buses can be a vehicle for other kinds of communication. He raised money to wrap four buses in photographs of the Brown PelicansCoho SalmonSalt Marsh Harvest Mouse and Mission Blue Butterfly.

You have only a few weeks left to catch a glimpse of these buses, which create a striking contrast with the San Francisco landscape around them. Gilens, along with Muni Diaries and Bay Nature Magazine, is holding a photography contest in honor of this project. Here are the details:

Endangered Species buses Photo Contest
Find the Endangered Species buses (see bus tracker below) and catch them with your camera in motion or at rest.
Enter up to four images by emailing them to endangerbuscontest@baynature.org (minimum 1500 pixels in length or width)The contest will be judged by Cheryl Haines, director of Haines Gallery and executive director of the FOR-SITE Foundation, which she established in 2003 to support art about place.

Prizes

First place receives $150 and publication in Bay Nature Magazine.

Second place receives two tickets to the San Francisco Zoo and two $10 Clipper Cards.

Five other entrants will be picked at random to receive $10 clipper cards.

 

ENTRY DEADLINE: 11 p.m. April 10, 2011 Extended to May 20! Send us your photos!

To find the Endanger buses, check out the real time bus tracker that Gilens created with GreenInfo Network on the EndangerBus.org website:

MrEricSir: Muni Needs Signal Priority


Photo by skronk!

MrEricSir has a suggestion for making Muni more efficient:

Anyone who regularly travels on Muni Metro through [the intersection at Church and Duboce], or the similar intersection at Ulloa and West Portal, can testify that these intersections are a major source of Muni Metro delays. (The West Portal intersection is actually worse, since Muni Metro has a signal but other traffic does not.)

If we really want to be a “transit-first” city, doesn’t it make sense to have traffic signals that give preference to transit? Especially in the case of Muni Metro, which is supposed to be “rapid” but when mixed with traffic is anything but.

Of course, that would mean that all of San Francisco would have to agree with the idea that public transportation sits atop a hierarchy, above cars, bikes, pedestrians, baby strollers, unicyclists, roller bladers, Segways, etc., etc., ad infinitum. Still, we like Eric’s idea. You can read the rest of what he’s got to say about it here.

What do you think?

Clipper tagging as performance art

Translink reader
Photo by Brian_Brooks

Over on the Muni Diaries Facebook page, Tammy left this amusing tale:

Dude boards thru bus back door. Mimes holding a card to the clipper reader and then fakes the payment beep by saying BEEP in a truly lousy falsetto. it worked.

Huh. Your falsetto game doesn’t even have to be on to win Clipper? Who knew?

Our Facebook page is just one more place for you to share your Muni stories. Go for it!

DC Airport Authority Undecided on Hiring Nat Ford (update)


Photo by mtarlock

Update (Wednesday, 11:36 p.m.):The Examiner speculates that the DC Airport Authority is likely to look past SFMTA chief Nat Ford for its next executive director.

Original post (Wednesday morning):City Insider/Chronicle reporter Rachel Gordon has the story.

Muni chief Nathaniel Ford, the front-runner for the job to run the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, was not offered the position after two-hours of closed-door deliberations this morning.

The authority’s 13-member regional governing board, which convened at 8 a.m. EST, opted to put off the decision.

The delay signals that the board is still deeply divided over whether to hire Ford.

Read the rest of the story at City Insider.

Muni of the Future, Today

Orion Hybrid Prototype

J.B. Davis snapped this photo of a sleek, new Muni bus sitting at one of the bus yards. Here’s what J.B. had to say about the bus:

Guess Muni were testing this new thing out, but after speaking to someone who works at the yard, it turns out the refueling box (top) is too big and the bus wont clear the standard garage/bus washes. Looks a hell of a look better than the current hybrids SF has.

We agree. And, too bad. We’re ready for the future to arrive, already.

People I See on Muni — from Tales of Mere Existence

People you’ve seen on Muni have made their way into a short animation by Lev Yilmaz of Tales of Mere Existence. In this short clip, he recounts people he’s seen on Muni and the Boston T.

“38 Geary, 6 a.m.: I see this guy on the bus every morning when I used to work at a coffee shop. He’d always sit in the front of the bus, and when I would get on, I would sometimes thumble a bit because I never had an easy time getting my dollar bill to fit into the fare machine. Anyway, this guy would watch me, close his eyes, and shake his head, because clearly I was the biggest moron who everwalked the earth.”

I love his animation and storytelling, so I highly recommend checking out his short clip above. The Rumpus also did an excellent interview with Yilmaz last year.

Hat tip: Milk and Cookies.

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