Photo by Thomas Hawk
Wow. We received the following story from Muni rider Christine on Wednesday, and really don’t know what to say. Sometimes, you think you’ve seen or heard it all … Also, the infraction in question (running a red light) resembles a situation from just a few weeks ago. Remember when the 19-Polk ran a stop sign and crashed into a truck that had also run a stop sign? For the sake of us all, drivers, obey traffic rules. Pretty please?
Oh, and stop calling passengers names! Right now!
I generally don’t go looking for trouble. I’m just your average cranky lady trying to get home after work on Muni. But then …
I was riding the No. 6 Parnassus about 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 19 when a woman passenger pointed out to the driver that he was running a red light while turning off of Judah onto 9th Ave.
He told her: “It’s none of your business.” She said: “I’m riding this bus, so it’s my business.” And got off the bus. He called out after her: “You’re retarded!” Another passenger on the bus got into the act and shouted “Retarded bitch!” out the window at the woman.
My stop was a few blocks later, and after pulling the cord, I went up to the driver. “What is your driver number?” I asked. He pointed to the number of the bus: 5469. “No, that’s the bus number. Is that your number on your sleeve: 2725?” He nodded. I said: “Perhaps you’d like to call me retarded.” “She was rude,” said the driver. “You have no right to call a passenger retarded even if you think she’s rude or out of line,” I said.
“If you’re rude to me, I’m gonna call you retarded,” he said, raising his voice. “Go on, be rude!” I just got off the bus. “You’re not worth it,” I snapped.
Good heavens, is this what my family is paying $135 in monthly fast passes for? And the SFMTA has the nerve to propose more service cuts and fare increases? I’m filing a complaint to Muni, although I doubt it will do anything.
