BART Cop Smashes Drunk Dude's Head Through Glass
Don't Dump Unwanted Stuff On City Sidewalks
Daisy Does the 49ers: Green Bay Tops SF
Asm. Tom Ammiano On Glass Breaking BART Cop
Sunnyside Conservatory Grand Reopening, December 5
...but then again, neither does the engine! Ha ha ha! Just kidding of course; Muni does a fantastic job. Really, top-notch service. Never a single complaint.
SFist reader Bob sent us this photo of a Muni bus decorated in a USA-themed color scheme, or maybe disguised as Homestar Runner. He writes, "Muni must have run out of buses or something today as they are using the craziest, busted old ass bus I have ever seen. ... It was late morning making a right hand turn from Clay onto Drumm."
Oh come on, it's not so bad. Just another normal day on the ... wait, does that say "43 Roosevelt"? What the hell? Is that even IN San Francisco?
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
'Burninate it.
I saw that bus, too, on Monday! It was driving up 9th Street in SoMa and made a right on Bryant, and didn't seem to have any passengers on board.
Obviously it just an old bus from a discontinued route running really, really late.
A Muni Flying Dutchman, if you will.
I remember those buses from when I was a kid. They were great with their torn up plush vinyl seats. At least they were soft and comfy, not like the cold hard seats the buses have now. When the bus would drive over a bump one of the springs in the seat would jab your butt. Man those were the days.
Maybe it's for a movie set in the olden days?
People who do not have roots in the city simply do not appreciate some MUNI nostalgia.
It seems like everyone who writes for or comments on SFist does not have roots in the city.
A possibly related result was for play titled 43 Roosevelt with the description:
"The prejudice that goes into choosing a seat on a bus."
The 37-Corbett runs around there, was this discontinued predecessor? Maybe it's for an adaptation of the play? Or maybe someone just wanted to avoid anyone thinking it was in service and used a route that no longer exists on the roll sign.
When was it discontinued? I found reference to it in the 1960's, but nothing about red, white, and blue.
"Is that even IN San Francisco?"
Maybe Ed Jew knows.
They have taken the old buses out. Since last week the 27 line also runs buses that look normal on the outside but that look like poor-ass LA buses on the inside with plastic blue seats and all.
I guess those new lines they set up made them run out of buses.
Is this for a movie shoot? I know they were pulling out the old, clunky buses when they shot "The Pursuit of Happyness."
That muni logo emerged in the mid 70's- could it be a special bicentenial bus???
ok i love the renovated really old busses from childhood. it makes me feel like things sometimes dont have to change (in the good old days kinda way)
It's definitely from Muni's museum fleet. Probably for a movie shoot. From here it looks like a classic GMC New Look which was in wide use all over the country in the 1960s and 1970s.
those old school buses are kinda cool.
Muni does seem to be a bit hard up for buses lately, as evidenced by the purchase of old Gilligs from AC Transit. I've heard this might be due to the forced retirement of some of the old, old buses, and delays in rolling out the new hybrids.
This is probably museum fleet though, as even the Gilligs have been updated to the current silver and red scheme. Muni did (does?) have one PCC streetcar (#1776) painted red, white and blue for the bicentennial.
-Austin
Old, clunky buses? Those GM New Looks (yes, that's almost certainly what that bus is, the Flxible New Looks had different turn signals) were damn near the pinnacle for US coach builders. Wide use in the 60s and 70s, sure. They lived on well until the 90s in Golden Gate Transit's fleet, and probably elsewhere.
The Canadians (and from the looks of it MUNI and AC Transit) resisted the move towards GM's replacement, the RTS. Variations of the GM New Look were produced until '97.
Wikipedia says that the snake logo was developed in the mid-70s, Pacific Bus says that the bus pictured was probably produced in 1970.
http://www.pacbus.org/roster/pbm3270.html
The particular bus was built in late 1969 and retired in 1985, and is privately owned. It was Muni's Bicentennial motor coach in 1976 (a trolley coach and a PCC streetcar were also painted patriotic motifs).
The 43-Roosevelt ran from Presidio and California to Church & Market. In 1979, it was replaced north of Cole and Parnassus by the 43-Masonic and south of there, over Buena Vista Hill and Roosevelt Way, by today's 37-Corbett.
I hear the management is all apoplectic as a result of this bus's appearance, which had occurred previously without incident.
Retired Muni operator
Muni's entire fleet is a museum fleet.
Where else in the world could you find high floor buses and trolleys (ie completely avoidable but infinite delays from wheelchairs and strollers and old ladies with pink plastic shopping bags) purchased in the last decade?
Pathetic. Just pathetic.
MUNI's historic opposition to low floor buses is pathetic. It is really unfortunate that the T-Third was not outfited as a low floor line that could have been integrated into a low floor central subway. Even some MUNI staff wanted low floors LRVs but they did not prevail...
The new diesel electric hybrid buses that MUNI is rolling out are partial low floors buses (about 2/3rds of the bus from the front to the rear is low floor, the rear 1/2 is a high floor section to provide space for the generators and batteries.
See this photo on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54568662@N00/674172355/
Thanks Retired Muni Operator for the facts! A new San Franciscan who appreciates the folklore and history of the city.
Ah yes, the high floor buses. Apparently back when the current fleet was being ordered (1990s) certain advocates for the disabled claimed it would be discriminatory for wheelchairs to use the center or rear doors (with a small ramp) instead of the front door (with the massive problematic slow slow SLOW lifts), and this prevailed over the obvious improvements in service low floors would have brought.
At least the hybrids are mostly low floor.
Many low floor buses have lower ground clearance, which could be a problem on the hills, where the road levels off at intersections. The bus might not clear the crest of the hill if it doesn't have enough ground clearance. That would restrict it to level routes, limiting its utility.
I got the story from Judson True of external affairs last night...
The bus was sold at some point to a private company which rents period busses, in period paint schemes, to film and television productions. It didn't seem the SFMTA is that apoplectic over this. Judson was sorting out the legal clearances and was excited about the production, but couldn't tell us anything about it.
I don't think he even used the term film. As for the hybrids, the shorter ones are already in use on some pretty hilly routes, including the 35.
The SFMTA has been getting a lot of compliments from disabled and senior riders and so far they are getting nearly three times the distance between servicing (11,000 miles over 4,000) than the diesels and obviously they are saving money on fuel as well.
...so scratch some of what I said. I spoke with Judson this afternoon and had missed part of what he'd said. He was speaking about another trademark use and he doesn't have the contact information for the current owner of the bus.
If anyone has the contact information for the current owner of that bus, please contact Judson True at the SFMTA (415) 701-4582 so he can get them legally squared away.
Low floor buses, at least for now, mean less available seating and more crowding. They're overrated. Plenty of agencies (samTrans, AC Transit, Golden Gate Transit) use high floor buses. Hell, GGT is exclusively high floor and they've certainly bought buses in the past ten years. Why MUNI has avoided buying any of the RTS derivatives is beyond me tho.