Dear Mr Ford:
Where in which SFist readers share their Muni concerns, anecdotes, and suggestions. Email us with your stories, and if we print yours (which we reserve the right to edit for grammar, spelling, usage, and length) we'll send you a snazzy SFist pin.
SFist Reader Basya has this personal message for the new head of Muni:
Since the September 2005 cutbacks there are hoardes of people waiting at most stops most of the time. The buses are few and far between and often unbelievably crowded and filthy when they finally arrive. I heard a young girl on the 6 Parnassus say out loud, "I'm so little and everyone smells so bad." People's personal habits cannot be controlled, but the schedules and consequent overcrowding can.And that's where you come in.
I have walked 40 blocks because I could not get a tolerable bus or a bus at all. Please keep thinking of global warming and how much it helps for people not to be consuming fossil fuels unnecessarily. I hope you will do everything you can to make public transportation tolerable and even attractive. Build community. Ask for our support. Let us know what we can do to help make things better.
I wish you great success in your new position.
Hear from SFist Readers Jason, Herb, and Wendy after the jump!
SFist Reader Jason speaks in praise of the F Market line:
As annoying as Muni can be (often for reasons beyond the control of staff, such as the lax attitude of us passengers toward the scofflaws and nuisances among us - imagine the yelling that would ensue on the NY subway in response to the rudeness we SFiscans regularly endure sans peep), I must put in a good word for the F Market line. How delightful it is. So comfortable, nicely appointed (thanks to cutely avid volunteers' refurbishment), and friendly. Practical, unlike the cable cars, yet scenic, historic and tourist-friendly. The drivers seem mostly pleased to have the gig, and if I can trust my senses, the line's endemic nutcases and stinky middle-class pitbull-toting 'anarchists' seem to act out less severely than on the N Judah or Haight buses. (BTW, didn't Senor Arizmendi take showers?)On the neg side, how lamentable is the plan to drive the Central Subway only so far as Stockton and Clay? If we're going to spend the money, the dig should go at least as far as the heart of Chinatown traffic, Stockton and Pacific. At best it would go to Washington Square and then Fisherman's Wharf, and would run under Kearny, drawing passengers from both Chinatown and the Financial District along the way. That last battle is lost, however. The other neg is not quite the fault of the Muni but rather of the NIMBYs in the Richmond: the lack of a high-capacity Geary corridor line. The squeaky (automobile) wheels in that district abhor the very possibility of an impingement on their driving, even if that threat be phantasmagoric, like a light-rail or bus rapid transit lane in their six-lane boulevard.
SFist Reader Herb has an excellent question
I work hard to earn my living, why do people still board without paying their fare? There can be no faster way to erode service than to not pay for it.
SFist Reader Wendy cracks us up:
Here is my most recent Muni story. It concerns a certain driver of the 67-Bernal Heights line who shall remain nameless, but only because I don't know her name. One of the bus drivers on the evening Muni 67 line totally owns her bus route, including the people in and surrounding her coach. She doesn't let anyone on without proof of payment, yells at people who throw things out the window, and doesn't take shit from anyone. She drives fast, loves to use the horn, and you better not be slow about getting on the bus or otherwise set her off. I respect and fear this woman. Her blood is always just at the boiling point, bubbling over into rage at the slightest offense (just what you want in a bus driver). There are a lot of buffoons on the bus who need to be put in line, but sometimes she goes over the line. Let's call her Road Regina in honor of her most distinguishable feature, road rage.She honks as she runs red lights to alert pedestrians that they're about to be broadsided. She yells at old ladies who have just gotten on to "SIT DOWN!" as she peels out before they have a chance to make it to an empty seat. She cares enough to warn you of her carelessness, but not enough to actually be careful.
Here are some specifics.1. A polite woman accidentally pulled the string too soon and then said, "Sorry, next stop!" after the driver opened the back doors but no one got off. This happens all the time. "You made me miss the light!" Road Regina yelled.
2. She once got in an altercation with a woman sitting up front that escalated so quickly I didn't get a chance to eavesdrop on the content of their argument. Whatever it was, it ended with the bus driver kicking the lady off "her" \ bus, and the "lady" swearing, calling the driver the N word, and then standing right in front of the bus, staring in the window at the driver and screaming more obscenities. The driver said, "I got all day! Go ahead and stand there! I am in NO hurry!" Nevermind the bus full of passengers. I didn't really want to get home that evening. The lady stood there blocking the bus for more than 10 minutes. The bus was blocking the eastbound lane of 24th Street at Mission, which is a crowded and chaotic traffic nightmare even without crazy people making fools of themselves after fighting with a Muni driver. People behind us started laying on their horns, not realizing that there was a human shield in front of us. The bus driver called the po-po, but the crazy lady left before they got there. She crossed the street and pretended to blend in with the very crowd that had gathered to stare at her shenanigans.
3. Don't start with her:
RR: "You better get on quick or I'm gonna leave without you!"
Older gentleman boarding bus: "Are you tired?"
RR: "I'm NOT TIRED."
Older gentleman: "Well, you're either tired or mad, one or the other."
Uh oh, I think.
RR: "I'm not tired OR mad!"
Older gentleman: "Yes you are."
RR: "Don't you start with me!" I silently pleaded with this man to obey, but he continued to start with her. They escalated into a "yes you are!" "no I'm not!" fight that ended only when he started talking about how blessed he was, and how he was going to heaven but didn't believe in hell. That shut her up quick.Despite my hatred of Muni in general, I almost look forward to the evening commute. There's never a dull moment when Road Regina steers you home.