Your place to share stories on and off the bus.
On Flickr, Eric Fischer spotted this backwards shelter:
I believe these are facing backwards to allow handicap access because the width of the street is too narrow for the shelter to face out.
Spot any other funky bus shelters?
Photo by Timmy
Just a few days after reports of the California Public Utilities Commission lodged allegations of Muni’s worn tracks and faulty equipment, the San Francisco Examiner delves further into the CPUC’s report to find “human error”-type infractions. From the Examiner’s story:
Many of the violations discovered by CPUC inspectors involve worn tracks, exposed wires, malfunctioning emergency phones and overgrown vegetation along the tracks, while a handful involve apparent human error.
On April 26, a state inspector observed an operator whose train was on automatic “closing his eyes while the train was moving.”
“The operator appeared to be asleep,” the inspection report said. “The operator had his right leg extended up on the trash can and his left arm was leaning on the left side of the control console. The operators head was resting in his left hand, while his eyes where closed and his mouth was open [sic].”
Other issues include speeding in a school zone, deboarding to buy snacks (something we’re all too familiar with here), and reading the paper while the LRV was operating under automatic control “an inspector observed a train operator whose cab had a number of newspapers in plain view. While the inspector did not see the operator reading the papers, the appearance was ‘that at some time during his shift he was being distracted by the news articles.'”
Read more at the Examiner.
Photo by Jessica Druck
Really?
I am not a parent so I don’t feel that I am an expert on matters of child safety, but I am guessing that a lot of parents don’t have the option to drive their children to school or arrange some other transportation option.
There’s been many reports of violence on the bus, and you may recall the 2009 story about a 11-year-old boy who got stabbed on the bus the first time he rode Muni. So the concern is understandable. On the Muni Diaries Facebook page, a reader asked if the question of letting your child ride Muni alone is the same issue as “would you let your child walk to school alone?”
Granted, at least on the bus, there is a driver who can keep the peace. Parents: Would you let your 10-year-old ride Muni alone?
Photo by Flickr user Chipmonkey
Come on down to hear H.P. Mendoza, screen writer and composer of Colma: the Musical and director of Fruit Fly, Joyce Lee, two-time Oakland Spoken Word Grand Slam Champion, and Kirk Read, writer and mastermind curator of Smack Dab and K’vets.
You’ll also hear stories from MissionMission‘s own Ariel Dovas, author Jan Richman and Muni Diaries Live: Breaking it Down audience favorite Jesse James.
And as always, you will have an opportunity to tell your Muni story on stage, with prizes galore! The photo above is Jesse, one of our audience winners whose story about the 1 had us in stitches. If you have a Muni story you would like to tell on stage, email us soon and let us know.
So what’s it like when a bunch of Muni riders pack the Make-Out Room and share tales from the bus? Come and find out. Meanwhile, check out our recaps of Muni Diaries Live one,two, three, and four. See you there!
Muni Diaries Live — It’s Our Third Birthday!
When: Friday, April 22, 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. $8 advance tickets, $10 door.
Where: Make-Out Room — 3225 22nd Street
Routes serving the area: BART 24th St. Station, Muni: 12, 14, 22, 33, 48, 49, 67
Get your advance tickets today at EventBrite
Cable car driver just rung bell in rhythm to protesters chanting “BofA! Doesn’t pay! Taxes in the USA!”
Thanks, Justin!
Photo by SFist
Muni Diaries commenter Kathryn wrote NextBus to complain, and received this response back:
First, thank you for taking the time to get in touch with us at NextBus to let us know about the problems our SMS Texting service caused you. We sincerely apologize to you and we want you to know that we’ve taken a number of steps to not only correct the problem but to insure that it will not happen again.
What happened? On Thursday, February 24th, due to a glitch in our SMS texting system, many who had utilized our NextBus SMS texting system in the past had a series of text messages sent to them. In most cases three texts were sent out. As soon as we became aware of the problem, we immediately shut down our texting system so that our engineers could troubleshoot the issue and fix it. Our primary concern was to insure that those receiving the messages didn’t incur additional texting costs or use up their monthly texting limit. We also fully understand how annoying it is to receive unsolicited texts.
What have we done? The first thing we have done is completely deleted the texting database of all telephone numbers. In other words everyone has been “unsubscribed” from our system. We’ve also re-configured our SMS texting system that provides our real-time transit arrival predictions; the telephone numbers of those who use our SMS texting system in the future will not be saved in any way, shape or form. For those riders who “subscribe” to our system to have transit “alerts” sent to them by SMS Texting, you will receive your alert and one additional text the first time you subscribe. This additional text will inform you that you have subscribed.
Again, we apologize for all of the annoyance and inconvenience we caused you.
The Support Team
NextBus, Inc.
Glad they got it under control.