Muni Diaries

Is your commute just too complicated? Consider the extreme measures — or gasp maybe don’t — one Dutch public transit rider went to to make it easier to pass through a metro turnstile.

According to the Mirror, Tom van Oudenaarden, the 37-year-old owner of a body piercing studio, allowed someone to implant the chip from an Oyster transit card in his hand, enabling him to use it to get through security gates sans plastic.

“They had to cut open my skin and make a hole under it that would fit a silicon disk of 1.4 inch wide by 0.3 inch deep,” he told the paper. “In the silicon disk we then placed the chip of the public transport card. It took seven stitches, so it hurt quite a bit but it was worth it.”

Hmm, sounds real nice and all, but I’d rather skip surgery and fumble for my Clipper card. I mean, right?

Photo by London Chow

Noticed all those Next Muni signs that says, “Registering…” just when you arrive at your bus stop? We saw one of the stops in the Mission that said, “waiting for 3G…”, and the Examiner confirmed that this is indeed what was happening.

From the Examiner:

The culprit is a systems migration for AT&T’s wireless networks, according to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which runs Muni. AT&T is moving away from its 2G networks and toward 3G, which has impacted some signs, according to SFMTA spokesperson Paul Rose.

If you thought that we were actually already in the 4G age, you’re not wrong. Next Muni’s signs depend on the network for GPS information. As AT&T moves the signs toward 3G, it has impacted about 8 percent of signs across the city. The Examiner reports that SFMTA is working on restoring services to these signs.

Meanwhile, you can always relay on this most accurate Next Bus sign in the city.

Photo via SF Examiner