Pron for Transit Nerds

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San Francisco Main Lines

I was poking around Market Street Railway blog the other day when I came across the bad-ass-est site: It’s called San Francisco Cityscape, and it’s a virtual emporium of transit maps, photos of the city, even iPhone background-sized images of wonders like the Golden Gate Bridge or the cable cars on California mountain Street.

But yeah, it’s those transit map that really drew me in. Here are a couple (click image to see original in a new tab/window), but hop on over to SF Cityscapes to fully ingest these visual wonders.

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San Francisco Bay Area Rail Transit

And my favorite …

CAHSR

California High-Speed Rail

Wishful Thinking: Bike-Subway Love Affair

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Reader Andy B. sent over this lovely picture. From what I can tell this is a subway car dedicated just for bikes, right? Many of my bicyclist friends would be delighted. Think it’s a good idea for BART? At least we could potentially avoid antagonistic situations like this one.

I didn’t recognize the picture immediately but a couple of minutes of dedicated scrolling later, I found that this was taken in Copenhagen, reportedly the most bicycle-friendly city in the world (courtesy of Arkitip Intel and Copenhagenize).

Thanks, Andy!

Too Much Sex, Read Your Bible

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Photo by Flickr user frantikgirl

I think the old adage about full moons bringing the crazies out is not true in San Francisco — I think the heat brings them out. So this morning’s sunny skies meant something good would be happening on the 45.

Once we dropped off all the Marina girls and the old ladies on Market Street and headed toward SOMA I noticed what appeared to be a late middle-aged man with a cane and a bible. Now, in most places, a bible is not necessarily a sign that you’re crazy, but on Muni a bible might as well be a straitjacket. Almost immediately he starts yelling really loudly, spit flying.

“Read your bibles, you’re all going to hell. Too much sex, read your bible. Only Jesus will survive the tsunami and save you from hell, it’s in the bible. Stop gay marriage, read your bible. Your generation is going to hell, read the bible.”

Most of the bus just ignores Angry Bible Guy, but this woman (who didn’t look quite all there) gets up and gets right in his face yelling, “Who are you to be telling us to read the bible, maybe you’re going to hell.”

Angry Bible Guy responds, “Act like a woman, read the bible.”

To which she tells him, “Act like a man, I bet you have a small pecker.”

Then they just start simultaneously screaming at one another until you can’t understand anything but him screaming, “Read your bible” and her imitating an ape with sound effects and a little ape dance.

Finally, the bus driver comes over the loud speaker, “Sir, Lady, you need to keep it down. Pipe down back there.” The screaming continued as I got off the bus. Oh, Lord, lease don’t let it get much hotter, I may have to take a cab.

Muni Art for Supervisor Eric Mar

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We had an inkling that Muni art can be really cool, and it turns out that Supervisor Eric Mar thought so too. The Richmond district supervisor recently commissioned artist Leslie Henslee, owner of Frankenartmart, to make a sculpture of the 38 Geary. She used materials from the ‘hood like Ocean Beach sand, Golden Gate Park parts, and Richmond haunts to make the sculpture:

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Pretty awesome that she’s sourced these local materials! See more pictures of the Heslee’s 38-Geary or go to Frankenart’s website to find out more about her projects.

Thanks to rider Joey for the tip!

Weekend Photo: Zoom!

The 22 Races Away Just Before Dawn
Photo by Flickr user eviloar

Whoa, this week passed me by just like that. Enjoy the sunshine, and don’t forget: you still have time to submit your obit for your favorite dying lines.

Here at Muni Diaries headquarters (also known as my second-hand desk from IKEA), we are gearing up for our second spoken word party, “Muni Diaries Live! Under the Influence.” Email us to join the line up or, as always, if you want to share your Muni tales or photos.

Have a great weekend!

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