Your Commute

Eh, who needs to be on time for anything anyways? It's a rare trifecta of traffic woes, with delays of up to an hour on the L Taraval MUNI line yesterday morning due to a fire at West Portal, and delays on Mission when a driver noticed smoke coming out of their bus. Disturbingly, because it was the brakes that were smoking, not the engine, the fire department decided they didn't need to do anything. (Maybe we're just naive but doesn't it seem that if smoke is coming out of your vehicle that the fire department should be concerned no matter what? Can someone explain this to us? Maybe the Essefficist?)

And today, Caltrain service was snarled for about three and a half hours after an early morning southbound train hit a car parked on the tracks in South City. The driver was killed. Investigators note that the traffic signals were operating correctly and are looking into the cause. Your correspondent was on a Caltrain once that hit a wayward pedestrian at Menlo Park, and it was horrible. (Not only was there a 90 minute delay, but also the person two rows up from us was loudly exclaiming, "this is the second train I've been on that's killed someone!" Best to find out this person's schedule and not cross the Caltrain tracks at those times, we say.)

And finally, not like things are any better for you guys on the road -- a piece of construction equipment came loose off a truck on southbound 880 right by Fruitvale, which closed off three lanes of traffic during the early morning commute. No major injuries but the lanes didn't reopen until about 9:30. Bummer.