Weekend Photos: Green Envy

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uscita
Photo by Thomas Hawk

This week on Muni Time Capsule, we bring you the first-ever printed Muni time table. In 1972, Muni driver Richard Morley decided that riders deserved to know when to expect buses. So he set out on his own to print schedules for riders. Yep, the first Muni time table wasn’t even published by Muni, but by a courteous and courageous driver.

In Muni news this week:

  • Car restrictions on Market Street help Muni, may become permanent (SF Public Press)
  • Editorial: Muni haphazard on accident-prone drivers (SF Examiner)
  • SF Supe Pushes To Get Free Muni Rides For Kids (KTVU)
  • Next phase begins for SF Central Subway project (KGO)
  • Empty Muni bus rams into light pole, fire hydrant (here on Muni Diaries)
  • Supes Getting Impatient With Muni (NBC Bay Area)
  • Muni Employees Now Have to Pay to Park — Just Like the Rest of Us (SF Weekly, California Beat)
  • APTA Survey: Transpo Bill Delay May Force Job Losses in U.S. Transit Industry (Streetsblog)
  • BART Puts More Police on Trains (SF Weekly)
  • Half Marathon disrupts Sunday morning Muni service (SF Appeal)

Don’t forget to join the fun on the Muni Diaries Facebook page by “liking” us. It’s like Twitter, but with more character(s) 😉

Enjoy these photos and your weekend!

1050 Passengers
Photo by Jeremy Brooks

Municipal SF Railway
Photo by Chris Saulit

06499 Green streetcar coming
Photo by Frank Chan

Optimus
Photo by ohad

Category: News

Muni Diaries Goods: Cheaper, Still Awesome

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Our third birthday is coming up this year, and we’ve restocked the Muni Diaries Etsy Store with more Fast Pass Clipper Card Holders and t-shirts! To celebrate our upcoming anniversary, we’re putting everything in the store on sale. While supplies last, take 20 percent off of the Fast Pass T-shirts (designed by Nate1 at New Skool) and Clipper cardholders (crafted by Heather L. of Heathered and designed by Suzanne Lagasa).

The Fast Pass design is also available in baby onesies and adult hoodies at Secession Art and Design.

Check out the Muni Diaries Store 20% off anniversary sale.

Category: News Tags:

The downtown-elevator loophole

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Bart elevator.JPG
Photo by Simon Miller

Muni rider Beth has discovered a bit of an issue …

Many of us ride BART and Muni every day without even thinking about the elevators. They fit so few people, they’re slow, and their floors are often bespattered with mysterious liquids. (Sounds like a precursor for a ride on a Muni bus, no?) It wasn’t until I started taking my daughter in her stroller on BART semi-regularly that I discovered something really odd.

In the four downtown stations (Embarcadero, Montgomery, Powell, and Civic Center), the elevators are outside the fare gates. That means you can go from the platform to the concourse level … and not pay.

Unfortunately, I found out the hard way that this has its consequences. I got on BART from, shall we say, a southern San Francisco BART stop, and went to Civic Center. I came up on the elevator and left the station without paying. I know, I know. It was not my most conscionable moment. Then I got back on at Civic Center, went down in the elevator, and went home.

That’s when I got charged a $5.20 “excursion fare” for my journey, which would have otherwise cost me $1.75.

However, if you only get on and off at one of the downtown stations, you could conceivably ride for free. And that’s BART or Muni — the elevators go to both platforms. (In fact, they’re the only way to get directly from the BART platform to the Muni platform without going to the concourse first.)

SFMTA PR Officer Kristen Holland says to watch out for fare cops. “The 42 SFMTA Transit Fare Inspectors who are out on Muni every day are very knowledgeable in the creative ways that people try to evade paying their fair share on Muni.”

I agree, you should pay the fare. But odd that nothing more is being done to address this specific situation. I suppose there’s not much BART and Muni can do about it, considering how hard it would be to build new elevators inside the gates, or gates just outside the elevators.

Category: BART

New Muni Shelters Are Small-Arms Fireproof

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New Muni Shelter
Photo by Jamison Wieser

You know that the new Muni shelters don’t protect you from rain, but did you know that they are protected against small arms fire? From the San Francisco Business Times:

Clear Channel is cagey about what it is spending on this, saying only that kitting out each bus stop costs the equivalent of “several luxury cars.” Part of that goes into the “military grade” screens — the sort used in tanks, capable of withstanding small-arms fire. They are expected to last five to seven years, though the units can be upgraded incrementally.

(Earlier, Gizmodo and Popular Mechanics reported that the shelters cost about $30,000 each.) Wow. Those Yahoo! Bus Stop Derby games are really safe!

The shelters are also wifi-capable, which I think will be enabled in 2013. “In exchange for watching one advertisement, users can also get free WiFi Internet access from a 4G superfast hotspot and use it as long as they want. The hotspots can extend up to three blocks and into nearby buildings,” the San Francisco Business Times reports.

Category: News
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