October 29, 2007
Ask a Muni Driver
Hey, it's the return of our Muni Driver. Welcome back, driver! Today he discusses how Muni handles all those big events, like this upcoming Halloween.
Question: Who gets to do the big nights and who doesn't and why does everyone complain that there's not enough busses? I've had to either wait for hours or even walk from downtown to the Haight just because there was no buses to take.
Fools, I say, fools! Only mad, bad, dangerous to know types want to drive buses at night. Drivers who choose to work HOLIDAY nights are fools thrice damned. Just kidding. Not.
In terms of twilight or Owl shifts, it all comes down to what shifts you sign up for during the 4-x-per-annum open signups at the various barns. Unless you have bottom-of-the-barrel seniority and there’s nothing left but nights, you’re doing this by your own free (and insane) choice.
Seriously now, many drivers prefer working nights; some of the Owl lines are the quickest shifts to get snapped up by an eager, clutching majority of drivers with dollar signs in their eyes. Owl runs – and anything after 6pm – get night differential pay. Owl runs usually last 10 or more hours per shift, so on top of the differential you’re pulling overtime, too. Plus there are fewer riders at night, less cars on the roads at night, just a generally less stressful environment to deal with. Except, of course, 90% of the people on the bus, the roads, and the sidewalks at, say, 4am are completely crazy and/or chemically impaired on a grand scale and/or exceedingly dangerous. Or at least, not a bunch of people in any condition or properly interpret interrogative sentences beginning with the words: “Please put the fare in the box”. So it comes down, yet again, to the driver’s personal preference: more money, crazier people can sound like a viable option to some folks.
Now, on to the so-called Big Nights. These are, in no particular order, Halloween, New Year’s Eve, and the Fourth of July. On these dates, “crazy” and “dangerous” and “city bus” all take on layers of meaning and import unknown on every other night of the year. Your major complaint is that there aren’t extra buses running on these nights. In fact, MUNI does try to put extra buses into circulation on all three holidays, but they can only do this on a volunteer basis; i.e., drivers who want RDO (MUNI-speak for working overtime on your Regular Day Off – it’s a special pay classification). So if they don’t get a lot of drivers willing to work these nights, they don’t put a large number of extra buses out there. Simple as that. And think about it, how many drivers really want to work this time? Most drivers have lives outside of their jobs and would certainly rather spend these dates doing what everybody else is doing – getting ripped, overeating, reflecting on their wretched family dynamics, etc. Besides, even if we assume that loads of drivers are just salivating to drive a bus on New Year’s Eve, for example, what does experience tell us about MUNI management’s ability to get those buses out onto the roads in a timely fashion and into the neighborhoods where they’d do the most good? Hmmm???
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why can't you find a few extra drivers to work the well known and easily planned events like bay to breakers or the nike women's marathon that finish at ocean beach and require transporting 1000's of extra people back across the city? you could probably balance the budget at 1.50 for each participant on that single sunday. what gives?
I volunteer for the Red Cross and have been at the finish line for both events, and it takes at least 1 to 1 1/2 hr to drive back across the City from those events. We are in Red Cross vehicles, so we can't drive aggressively like your normal SF ass****, so I estimate our pace as similar to a bus - slow. People would just bitch about how long it takes and how the buses get all bunched up. Plus I'm sure the drivers can laim octuple-overtime on days like that.
I doubt Muni even has enough available buses. There are literally dozens, maybe hundreds, of buses chartered for the occasion for participants, volunteers, and camp-followers.
i dont know about that. after bay to breakers i see literally 100's of people stranded along fulton every year trying to get on any available bus. nike does a much better job of course with buses they make folks pre pay for, 10.00. why can't muni take that action back?
you don't even live here, suckafree. Keep your comments on local muni issues to yourself.
All those people on Fulton after BtoB are so stoned and drunk it's a wonder they could make it on a bus, not to mention keep from puking all over it once they got on. We barely avoided running over several - and there were a few *passed out* in the right hand traffic lane. Such a lovely assignment for a Muni driver!
Besides, like Muni Driver suggests, it's really the lack of drivers that keeps teh buses in teh barn. Unless you want to give Muni a holiday on the Monday after.
speak for yourself murph. your name says it all doofus!
Suckafree looks to be the winner here, due to his use of "doofus." Murphstahoe could still pull of a victory, though, if he can work "fiddlesticks" or "your father's mustache" into an insult.
lol! murph, if you live here, i apologize but for some reason i recall you admitting being an ex-sfer somewhere. maybe it was on another blog? for that reason, i wonder why you spend time reading this blog or commenting on local political issues that would take a 3.5 hour drive to affect you?
As for B2B, there are extra shuttles that cost $5 or something and there are silly rules involved that I'm not remembering right now (I think they do something similar for 49ers games). No one takes them because there are other regular-priced buses available, even if you have to wait 5 million years for one to show up (that might just pass you by anyway because it's too crowded).
well someone in our building has to rescue us every year since we can't get a bus we'd be more than happy to pay for. something is wrong with that.
What?!
Why can they only staff the extra buses that they already know they will need on a volunteer basis? Isn't Muni a public utility/corporation in the public interest? Don't Muni managers have authority to plan routes and the number of buses and drivers? Don't managers also have discretion over firing people who refuse to show up to work?
I honestly don't get why managers can't add "holiday weekend" + big crowds + the "transit-first city" crapola we're all spoonfed and come up with even an approximate answer.
Not to lay this all at your doorstep, Ask A Muni Guy/Lady. I appreciate knowing this so I can plan my screaming into the phone at Nat Ford accordingly.
mamcart, that would imply we had some sense of accountability from top to bottom at muni. never!
sorry suckafree, I live here and am not leaving anytime soon, will stay here to torment you as long as is necessary. I'm hoping measure H passes so I can put in a curb cut even though I don't have a car. The way I figure it, I can take out 2 on street parking spaces from in front of my house with one curb cut and keep the car driving vermin from blocking my view.
It seems like other public agencys can require work on holidays/ busy days/ event days - like the police department. I would hope that the Muni & city officials who want to "improve" muni will see this & put in in the next contract with the drivers. If they don't want to play - then they can go out in the job market & find a job that doesn't include "public service" in the job description!
San Francisco, a transit first city completely under the control of unions who block real reform.
Voting yes on A will further the unions' powers.
alright murph, i apologize for confusing you with someone else. the tahoe moniker must have thrown me as well. did you own a ford pickup truck and live in westwood village at one point too? just found that on google.
I'm really curious what actual Muni employees think about Prop A and whether it will improve things and increase accountability.
As for holiday bus service I used to work at a customer support call center and, likely since we didn't have a union, we were required to work holidays. The system was that if you got off one holiday (and that was a big if) you were required to the work the next one (and might be even if you did get it off). I mean, sure, people just didn't come to work because it's a terrible, minimum-wage job staffed almost entirely with high school drop-outs, mental/social defectives, and the occasional college student, but I think Muni would have more control.
The fact that a place that feels they need to stay open 365 days a year just so someone can call in and bitch about not receiving their computer yet can have no problem covering holidays while a vital city service like Muni is almost completely unable to cope is ludicrous. I know it really, really sucks being forced into working on holidays when you really don't want to, but you find ways to deal. My mother's a nurse and they don't seem to have any problems keeping other critical services operating smoothly (though not in SF), why not Muni?
yah i want to hear about driver reactions to A
and also, wtf happened to the J this week it's back to old school times with dudes all bunched up and 20-25minute waits at rush hour. it was actually pretty good for the last few months?? or maybe i was just getting lucky??