Meanwhile, on Muni
David Lytle on Flickr captured this shot of adorable riders.
Share what you saw on Muni today in our Muni Photos Flickr pool.
Wanted: Your Singing Muni Driver
- “My Muni driver is announcing all the stops in a Donald Duck voice. It’s kind of amazing.” — @thelynchbox
- “The 71L bus driver is singing the stops instead of yelling them. So awesome.” — @Grahamcrackersf
- “This J line operator keeps doing a Donald Duck impression over the PA, and it’s freaking me out.” — @mrfb
- “I swear my Muni driver is singing out the stops…” — @simplelife9
- “this 38 Geary bus driver srly thinks she’s a flight attendant announcing every stop and tourist trap in a sensual voice. Lol” — @MMMeliO
- “in response to people angrily yelling “BACK DOOOR!” on the 49,driver is now repeatedly yelling it into his own mic. Won’t stop” — @kailielaine
In the craziness of getting across town, I can definitely appreciate drivers who have a great sense of humor. Does anybody have audio or video of such entertaining Muni operators to share?
A new low in Muni etiquette
Dayum!
Spontaneous ESL lesson on the 18
Photo by smi23le
Greg at N-Judah Chronicles shares a story about a neighborly ride he had on the 18-46th Avenue the other day. Seems a fellow passenger decided he’d be their English tutor. Read the full story at N-Judah Chronicles. Wouldn’t it be great if we were always so kind and helpful to one another?
Muni: Rare, Beautiful, Endangered?
Photo by Todd Gilens
Infusing art into everyday life is an idea that Gilens has used in many of his projects — he has designed and installed sloped bike racks on Market and Sixth that were inspired by the street plans of Treasure Island. For EndangerBus, Gilens was inspired when he learned about SFMTA’s “Transit Effectiveness Project.”
The project measured “maintenance, driving efficiencies, ridership statistics, the bread and butter of transportation engineers work. But no one was discussing aesthetics, or what wider impacts and meanings transit has,” Gilens wrote about his project. “It seemed to me that an assessment of effectiveness should include these criteria too.”
Instead of thinking about buses an advertising space, Gilens wondered if buses can be a vehicle for visual impact. “We use buses without thinking, like using a paper towel, but what if we used images to transform the bus, to give an emotive quality to buses?”
Gilens raised money to wrap four buses in photographs of the Brown Pelicans, Coho Salmon, Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse and Mission Blue Butterfly.
See the making of the EndangerBuses:
The four buses will be in operation until at least April, rotating through different lines. If you are wondering where you can catch one, check out the real time bus tracker that Gilens created with GreenInfo Network on the EndangerBus.org website:
Have you spotted one of these buses? What do you think about Gilens’s idea to transform the bus into something more than a simple vehicle?
No more 2.5-hour wait for the 38
Photo by Thomas Hawk
Through his own vigilant postings, Akit brought attention to the fact that riders were experiencing a 2.5-hour gap in service between the 38L-Geary and regular old 38-Geary out in the Outer Richmond. The last 38L to run on Saturdays left 48th Avenue headed inbound at 5:37 p.m. The next 38-Geary to leave the same location after that was scheduled to leave at 8:02 p.m. Yes, you read those times right.
If you were a passenger there, you were out of luck if you wanted to catch an inbound bus between 5:37-8:02 p.m., unless you were willing and able to walk three long blocks away to either the 31-Balboa or 5-Fulton stops at Cabrillo and La Playa.
But like we said, Akit scored a victory here. Read about Muni’s reaction over at Akit’s Complaint Deparment.
Congrats, Akit and Outer Richmond Muni riders!