Aw, crap. We were all ready to do a "Muni Does a Good Job" post -- it just seemed like time to take a break in the parade of Muni madness. But you, our dear, dear readers, have given us another week of Muni disaster. When will it end?

Reader Reilly tells a chilling tale of the kind of near-miss many of us have experienced:

Earlier tonight I was walking with my 4 year old daughter down Chestnut street going home. We were about to cross Fillmore street when the 22 MUNI bus forced us to jump out of the street and back onto the sidewalk. This was a shock considering that the stoplight had been red for the bus for at least 10 seconds. The bus recklessly ran the steady red light nearly hitting the both of us and others crossing this busy intersection. The MUNI bus scared my daughter so badly, that I could hardly console her. I try hard to protect my children, as any parent does, and to know that SF Muni drivers are driving around absolutely recklessly causes me incredible fear and concern.

I have lived in many large cities and dealt with their public transportation systems. However, over the past 6 years of living in San Francisco I have never seen more reckless and dangerous operators. I have noticed this for years - even being present when a woman was run over and killed by my office at Main street, yet, it's only at this point when my daughter was nearly killed that I write to you. MUNI buses cut off cars in streets, race across red/yellow light intersections and bully drivers and pedestrians across the city yet nothing seems to be done to remedy this potentially deadly situation. Who is accountable for this and what steps have been taken? What are the criteria for termination for these drivers and who has input?

This must be dealt with. My daughter was not hurt tonight thanks only to my quick reflexes and paranoia. Unfortunately, I don't believe that others will be so lucky with this absolutely dangerous group of individuals driving on our streets.

We noticed that Reilly ccd the Plumpjack half of CSI: Plumpjack on this email. Here's hoping Gavin can take a break from solving the case of the unissued cable car receipt and figure out what's going on there.

More Muni misery from reader Jas after the jump.

Image from Itinerant's Flickr page

The Time: 5:45ish pm, March 22, 2006

The setting: a packed full #6 Parnassus heading outbound

The events: I got on at Civic Center, and the bus did it's normal thing until we stopped at the bus island at Van Ness Ave. At that point the driver got off the bus, paced back and forth for a minute, and then got back on the bus, and mumbled "waiting for my relief, people, waiting for my relief." A twenty-something woman asked if we'd be moving soon and he started ranting about "being too old for this kinda game" and some other general dissatisfaction-type remarks. People started getting of the bus after 5 minutes or so. The bus driver is muttering to himself.

Suddenly he jumps back in his seat, shuts up the doors, and takes off down Market. Everyone is visibly relieved. The driver is animatedly talking into his little bus-phone but I can't hear what's being said. The bus turns up Haight and reaches Laguna, but instead of heading on up Haight Street, it turns right on Laguna and pulls over at the curb stop there.

"Last Stop", the driver mutters. A man says "What??" and the driver stands up and says "LAST STOP! HOW'S THAT!" and soon there is a traffic jam of people getting off the back doors, 'cause no one is gonna try and go past the driver, as by now he and a passenger are trying to yell over one another and it's getting pretty hot up there. By the time I get out the back door and start waking towards Page St. the driver is in the front doorway of the bus screaming at a small crowd of vocally dissatisfied passengers. Some of his choice phrasings included "WELL I THINK YOU ARE A F**KING A**HOLE, TOO!", "F**K YOU!", and when asked by an elderly woman what bus she was to take now, "THE F**KING SEVEN". She pointed out that the six and seven part ways at Masonic, to which he replied "WHY DON'T YOU CALL F**KING MUNI THEN! GO AHEAD CALL F**KING MUNI!"

At this point thought that I should get this guy's badge number, but then I thought he might not be in the mood to offer it up. I sized up my options, and when faced with a bus worth of bewildered passengers at the shelter on Haight street, I decided to just walk home.

OK, Mr. Ford. We have one red light runner, and an old-lady-cusser-outer. We'll tell you right now that if we behaved this way where we work, we'd be out of a job pretty fast -- and if the people we managed pulled crap like this, we'd be out of a job even faster. This kind of abuse is going on EVERY DAY. Mr Ford, what gives?

Keep on emailing us your Muni stories happy and sad, and we'll keep on publishing them (after we make any necessary edits, of course).