April 26, 2008
26-26-26 Valencia
It's Saturday the 26th and the iPhone says we have 26 minutes to wait for the 26 Valencia bus. This is the kind of magic we have always associated with the 26 Valencia, the bus line of which we are most inordinately fond. It's not like the 14 Mission, which we need, or the 33 Stanyan, which we respect, or the 38 Geary, which we fear (in a Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit kind of way).
No, the 26 Valencia is a magical creature - 26 minutes (supposedly) to wait on the balmy evening of the 26th - just the kind of numerology we would expect from this rare creature, the unicorn of buses. We feel that spotting a 26 Valencia is good luck (2x13?) - it gives the day a special air.
Which is why we were dismayed to see that the Municipal Transit Authority's Transit Effectiveness Project (that's a mouthful of bureaucracy) has hatched to plan to snuff out the 26 Valencia. Posters have appeared on poles up and down the route asking folks to comment on the recently-released Draft Proposals to Transform Muni.
Perhaps the rare and elusive 26 Valencia is not a practical bus line, but is not the unicorn an impractical creature? Does this mean we should kill them off? If the 26 Valencia were to perish, we could never again have the extraordinary experience of spotting Michelle Tea on board -- Tea, of course, made her first big literary splash with her novel Valencia.
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Please let me be the first to say: f--- unicorns...unless they've been made in to burgers!
DON'T USE MUNI!!!!
Not only does MUNI kill people, the simple act of waiting for MUNI is life threatening!
AVOID MUNI AT ALL COSTS!!!!
F--- the TEP furreal furreal
look at them, they taking buses to the junkyard and they still in good condition, man!
They want to get rid of the 26, 36, 66, those routes we need! What kind of TEP are they, man?
The only way to survive MUNI is to get on, get to the very back and lock and load. It also doesn't hurt to get your weapon ready while waiting at the bus stop apparently. This place is circling the drain toot sweet.
Heeheehee I love this post.
This post means not one but TWO iPhones or some other newfanglejangle was in the vicinity, for one to document original iPhone and resultant 'OMG OMG OMG 26 26 26!'
And pulling a 'hold on, honey; i'm blogging' on a Sat. nite is a one-way ticket to Mary Palmer's house, nawmean?
The 26 is for people that are too lazy to walk to mission street. I'm happy they are getting rid of that line, even though the new buses are so nice
Under TEP, the 36 will have an entire new route, and will include part of what was the 26 along Chenery.
the 26-valencia is the 6-parnassus of the mission. i love it. and i will scratch someone's eyes out if it's taken from me.
The 26 is a good bus line, especially as an alternative when you wanna get downtown faster than the 14 or 49 can take you . The 14 and 49 are already slow as hell and always crowded...So the solution is to get rid of the 26, and make MORE people ride the 14 and 49? Doesn't make sense. Plus Glen Park is getting screwed with the 26 and the 35 being taken away.
It's worth waiting 26 minutes to take the 26 so you can avoid the piss-drenched drug addicts on the 14.
what site are you viewing NextBus through to get that interface? that looks a hell of a lot better than the standard mobile view.
That's an iPhone web app called "munitime" - to get it, visit and bookmark the following URL on your iPhone: http://sf.munitime.com
Accuracy unknown... I've never really paid attention to see how close it is to reality.
Is there any credibility in putting the words "MUNI" and "accuracy" in the same sentence?
Dude, the Munitime app is teh awesome.
I like seeing when the next three buses are coming.
Noooo!!! I use the 26 all the time. It's not that I'm too lazy to walk to Mission. It's that it's a much better bus.
It sucked enough when it stopped going all the way to SF State.
wow, the munitime link is rad, that thing loads about 50x quicker than the nextbus site.
okay, but were you on 26th street while you were waiting the 26 minutes for the 26 Valencia on 4/26? That's what I want to know...
Anyone who knows anything knows that the 24 Divis is, in fact, The Unicorn: it is naught but a myth, oft whispered of in hushed tones yet rarely seen and even less-frequently ridden.
noway! i see the 24 every day as it passes by my windows. it's a nice unicorn.
the 26 is magical realism in the form of a bus.
shamwow.