muni-etiquette – Page 9

Creative punishment for fare-jumping?

I don’t know about you, but I can appreciate a certain level of honesty with some things, including breaking the law. Especially if you get caught. (“Ah. Yes, officer, I know how fast I was going. Very fast, indeed”.) By the same token, I also appreciate subtle, off-script ways of punishing people for doing so.

Fare jumpers often seem more nonchalant than anything else. They keep their heads down as they wrench those back doors open by their fingernails, and generally don’t say much or cause a ruckus while they’re trying not to get squished in the doorway.

This gal on a 10-Townsend one afternoon put them all to shame.

Don’t Be “Sorry” On The 47

On my way to SPUR’s Blogging in the City event last night, a cross-dressed man boarded with a bulky roll-on luggage that was topped with yet more black garbage bags filled to the brim. He had crooked teeth and a startled, amused look on his face. As he made his way down the aisle he talked to no one in particular a little too loudly.

Passengers around him looked alarmed and shrugged at one another, trying not to notice.

As the cross dresser got up to leave, a girl accidentally bumped into him and muttered, “Sorry.”

“Don’t be SORRY,” he said sarcastically. “Do you know what ‘sorry’ means in the Merriam Webster dictionary? It means ‘worthless.’ WORTHLESS.”

Under her breath, I think the girl said, “That’s not true.”

“YES it is!,” the cross dresser said, “and I don’t need your negativity!”

Photo by Flickr user Poldavo.

Muni Diaries Anniversary Favorite: Don’t piss off the Pregnant Lady

Tara’s favorite diary got quite a response in the comments. We’re not taking sides, of course, and we do love a spirited debate about bus behavior: “I actually really like the pregnant-lady-trips-girl for a few reasons. It (along with a lot of our ‘what should you do in this situation?’ kind of Seinfeldian posts) generated a lot of debate on what we as non-pregnant, non-disabled people have the responsibility to do on public transit. Also, it’s just plain hilarious to picture a pregnant lady shifting from passive-aggressive to aggressive-aggressive because of some kid.” Visit the site tomorrow to read Jenny’s favorite diary as we wind down toward our first birthday Friday.

Don’t piss off the pregnant lady (originally posted February 19, 2009)

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Pregnancy is making me mean

Today the muni was crowded. I had to wait forever for the L. I had the smarts to take whatever train to West P. and then wait for the L so most of the train ride wasn’t so bad. However, when I got on the L it was super crowded. I unbuttoned my jacket, stuck my pregnant belly out as far as I could and no one gave me a seat. In fact, most of the other Sunset residents on the train closed their eyes and pretended I wasn’t there.

Breastfeeding on Muni

This photo came to us via Jon Snyder – “First time I’ve seen breastfeeding on the J,” so here’s a photo Jon took with his iPhone.

I know people have strong feelings about breastfeeding – whether to do it, how long to breastfeed your child, and of course, is it ok to do it in public?

Good morning, here’s my crotch

As Muni Diaries has documented before, sometimes people pull out their penises and stick them in your face on the bus. OK, that just happened once (as far as we know), in one of our most popular penis-in-public posts yet.

Perhaps more often, there are more tame crotchal offenses, including crotch-on-the-shoulder guy.

As the Muni Ladies have noted before, you (well, all of us, really) must use proper crotch etiquette when you’re standing on the bus. So I don’t know who told this guy he could do the “Sugalumps” song from Flight of the Conchords during my morning commute, but it’s just across-the-board unacceptable.

It’s pretty self-explanatory. I was sitting on an aisle seat for about 40 minutes, and was occasionally treated to a shoulder bump with this guy’s crotch. It just happened a few times, and ultimately wasn’t a huge deal, but it’s a pretty huge offense of the aforementioned etiquette rule. I don’t care how tired you are (which he demonstrated by leaning both elbows and head on the top horizontal rail, letting the rest of his body flap around like a marionette); keep track of your body or you might get woken up very, very quickly with my elbow next time.

Photo by WHAT I’M SEEING from the Muni Photos Flickr pool

Ask Muni Diaries

carleighamalin from Twitter (you know her here as CAK) tweeted us the other day to ask the following:

Is it rude to FB friend someone you see on MUNI daily but dont want to actually converse with because I’m a.m. antisocial w/ ipod

We dusted off the ol’ Muni Diaries Magic 8-Ball to arrive at the following:

Facebook users tend to fall into two broad categories: Those who friend (yes, a verb, deal with it) liberally, and those who exercise restraint, thereby limiting themselves to, you know, “friends” who are people they know.

As with other internet traditions, there’s no cut-and-dried, black-and-white answer here. On the one hand, who knows what could come out of this friending, should it occur? On the other, not doing anything surely wouldn’t inhibit the possibility of, oh, say, talking to this someone in person, on the bus, if the opportunity presented itself.

And there’s always that remote possibility that your someone could be reading this right now, and know exactly who you are. And there you’ll have it.

Verdict: Go with your gut.

Tag: muni-etiquette