Driver courtesies

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I was on one of the Market Street buses a couple of weeks ago — the 71-Haight, I think — heading toward the Ferry Building. The bus was nearly empty and a couple of folks got off just as I hopped on. As soon as the bus doors closed, the driver turned to a young couple sitting in the elderly/disabled section and said, “Check your bags. The guy who was sitting next to you is a pickpocket. Let me know if he took anything and I’ll call the cops.”

She waited while they frantically checked their bags. Fortunately, nothing was taken and the bus wasn’t seriously delayed. But I liked that this driver was looking out for out-of-towners possibly distracted and dazzled by their unfamiliar environment.

It almost made up for the 38L driver yesterday who spent more time yelling at every single passenger than actually driving… – Beth W.

Category: Funny: Muni LOLs Tags: ,

Next stop, Washington Square?

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There’s a light at the end of the tunnel and it’s definitely an oncoming train. The question is, is it a good thing for North Beach or not?

Locals, at least those who are members of the District 3 Democratic Club, seemed divided on the subject of the Central Subway, which was the featured topic at Thursday night’s special meeting of the D3DC at the Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center. A well-chosen panel — representing both Muni (or, if you must, MTA) and grassroots interests — tossed the subject around, both among themselves and with the lively audience.

If you’ve been living in a cave for the past few years, the Central Subway (known sarcastically to its detractors as the Rose Pak Memorial Tunnel) is Muni’s planned extension of the T-Third rail line across Market Street and up Stockton into the very belly of Chinatown.

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Category: News Tags: , , , ,

31AX

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Clearly, the “if you don’t have anything nice to say…” adage is not Muni Diaries’ style. Usually. But today, we have something nice to say.

The 31AX (express service running between the Outer Richmond and Financial District) earned itself some kudos today. By the time it showed up at my stop on Balboa at 28th Avenue (at 8 a.m.), it was packed. But the beautiful part is that at Park Presidio, it stops picking people up. It zooms along, down Geary, then down Bush, to get this busload of people to their jobs downtown. Even in spite of the full bus, it was still punctual, pleasantly quiet and got me to downtown in a record 30 minutes. I had more than enough time to stop and grab coffee during my walk up Sansome to the Wharves, and I felt fantastic because of it.

Getting to work on time, reliably, is one of the biggest beefs I have with the system these days. But I might be less inclined to strangle people and pen angry letters to Muni HQ if the limited service runs continue performing as well as they did today.

Is an increase in express lines the answer? Think and discuss.

-Tara

Category: News Tags:

confirmed by a cab driver…

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…that San Francisco is one of the worst cities in the country to do pretty much any transiting. Put it this way: no matter how you decide to get from Point A to Point B, whether by bus, streetcar, cab or regular car, it will take infinitely longer to do so than it would in most other major metropolitan areas.

Why was I in a cab at 9 a.m. on a Friday, you ask?

As Jeff posted earlier, the F line stopped on Market and dumped all its passengers near New Montgomery. This was due to an apparent power outage somewhere on the line. From what I could gather, given the clusterfuck around every trolley bus and streetcar, everyone on the line had to stop. This created a mass spillover into Market Street and surroundings, as people clamored for cabs and shoved their way into the already-full buses clunking past. I picked up a cab on Second near Market, and the fare jumped to almost $5 before hitting Market. For perspective, it cost roughly another $5 to get from Market to the very north end of town.

Aside from the F, the only Muni lines that I know go by my job are the 10-Townsend and the 39-Coit. Seeing as how neither of those was near me (not as far as I could tell), I had absolutely no idea how I could get to work without taking a cab. I tried looking at a system map on a bus shelter on Third Street…but couldn’t see through the ink-black graffiti covering almost everything.

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Category: WTF: Weirdness on Muni Tags: , , ,
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