July 27, 2007
Your Commute: Meltdown! (Sorry, We're Not MattyMatt)
Well, first and most importantly! -- SFist MattyMatt's started a new job so he's been pretty busy at work and hasn't had time to post lately, for all folks asking about him in the SFist Tips column!. But he's still here, we promise! We miss him too! (Meanwhile, you guys can always check out his personal blog.)
And second of all -- goodness, what a terrible day on the commutes. It's like when the sun, the moon, and a bunch of other planets all line up in a syzygy: all K, L, and Ms got stuck due to inbound line damage in the West Portal tunnel on MUNI, and a train went out of service at 24th Street on the BART. Nightmare.
On the bright side, we managed to use all the transit tie-ups as an excuse for our late arrival at work today (we didn't get stuck in the mess, we just woke up late). How was your ride in? Maybe SFist MattyMatt will get a break at work and can give us the zingy in the comments!
Current status: BART up and running again; MUNI to come back within an hour or two.
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"And second of all -- goodness, what a terrible day on the commutes. It's like when the sun, the moon, and a bunch of other planets all line up in a syzygy"
Or as I like to call it, Friday.
And we have the joy of Critical Mass for the journey home...
Haha sh!t, I forgot about Critical Mass tonight. Glad I'm leaving the city at 3 today.
I just have to vent that the NextMuni.com on the two MUNI metro stands around 4th and King piss me off to no end with their misinformation. I think the solution is to just walk a block down to the ballpark MUNI metro pickup spot.
When NextMuni misbehaves, be sure to let NextBus know: website - at - nextbus - dot - com. They're really eager to get feedback, and in the past I've gotten prompt personal responses. They're very cool folks.
The NextBus issue at 4th & King and King & 4th is not an occasional thing. The signs on the King St. platform announce arrivals for the 4th St. platform.
As for MUNI.... ah... MUNI. They were running the trains manually for my ride home today. You can tell because of:
1.) The train labeled M-Ocean View/J-Church/S.F. MUNI
2.) Said train had half of its left doors open
3.) Said train was idling at Montgomery station for about 10 minutes, and rolled backwards a bit before taking off
4.) The lack of the telltale motion sickness inducing ATCS speed control.
As horrible and immoral as critical mass is, I'm not sure it's really so much worse than day to day operations at MUNI. As usual, with all of these service problems, WHERE were the announcements on sfmta.com? Hmm.
I was given the heads up about muni @ 7 am today allowing me to have the best commute of the month I DROVE! Yeah, I drove my politically incorrect VW TDI [40 mpg city]. I made it from Silver Tree Parks and Rec day campin Glen Park to Union Square in 16 minutes. F*** MUNI !
i went on my first critical mass today. i think there is alot of potential in the design. I would love to see this turn into a ride whose primary purpose is to hang out wiht others on a fun ride around the city rather than pissing off traffic. I would totally be willing to work with others to come up with an amicable solution because I stopped every time the light was red for me and still managed to keep up with the pack. that means you can do it without "breaking it all up." i just really loved riding up market with lots of people. best inner city ride of my life!
I got stuck in Critical Mass once as a cyclist, who was just coming home from work in his usual commute. The CMers seemed all sullen and unhappy, not the celebratory crowd I expected.
I rode with them for about six blocks, but when they veered north off Market, I was glad to see their backs.