May 30, 2008
Muni's 2008 APTA Rail Scandal: Not Actually All That Scandalous
So, no doubt you've noticed that your Muni buses are a bit more chipper than usual, with a friendly message scrolling across the head signs. Some folks have been grumbling to us about the greeting -- "isn't the destination sign for, you know, DESTINATIONS," that kind of thing. Meh. We guess. Probably.
On one hand: saying "welcome" is good manners, and the APTA thing -- a big transit conference -- is kind of prestigious. The main highlight, according to a Muni press release, is a "rodeo" that sounds like it'll be an obstacle course for buses trains. Oh and also there's going to be several days' worth of meetings about safety, traffic planning, rail corridors, energy conservation, budgeting, and so on -- topics that, frankly, sounds more important than a frigging rodeo, but the press release doesn't go into much detail about them.
And on the other hand: ehhhhh, sure, the message is meaningless to 99.9% of San Franciscans; and kind of irritating, we guess, if you need to know in a hurry which bus is coming. We could only find one stop where it's actually a problem: at Fulton and Stanyan, on the practically-identical 5 and 21 routes. For some reason, the 5 and 21 stop on opposite sides of an intersection; so if you're going downtown, you have to stare into the distance to see which bus is coming, and then scurry across the street to the corresponding stop. So ... yeah, there's one intersection where things will be a little tense. Considering how sad Muni news can sometimes be, we're willing to give them a pass for now.
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do they have a seminar on not sucking?
Typical of Muni. They'd rather be self-serving than deal with anything likely to affect the vast majority of people they should actually be providing with transit.
We don't care about a transit conference as much as we'd like to know what bus is pulling up. Frankly, the only thing I can even see as being beneficial from the conference is if other cities are just planning this as a means to force an intervention on Muni and get them to admit that they have a problem. Other cities manage to have functional transit, why can't we?
I nominate as a candidate that stretch of Fillmore where you have to crane and peer to see if it really is the 22 coming, finally, or just the Sacramento bus teasing you with regular service.
I'm with wchase on this one. "Not sucking: How to run a transit system for fun AND profit"
Maybe our boy Gavin and his overpaid toadies need to visit Boston to check out how efficient South Station and the T run. Maybe while he was in Paris he should have gone underground to test out the old Métro.
It's magical to see what a little bit of competence brings to the game. Something San Francisco is sorely lacking. Top down.
I gotta say, I found this mildly annoying when I was waiting for a 9X on Howard and Third on Thursday afternoon. On a good day, it can be a challenge to get on the correct bus at that stop. The 30 and 45 stop there as well, and the right hand lane is a 'bus only' lane on that entire block.
Cars (especially taxis) routinely ignore the "bus only" rule and clog up the lane. So if there are five cars in the bus only lane stopped at a red light, then you've gotta walk half a block to see if the muni driver will deign to open the door. If he/she doesn't, you run back to the intersection hoping that the driver will stop at the actual stop and let you board. But by then the driver decides to open the door on a whim, let one passenger board, slams the door shut then blows through the green light.
Add to this mess the freaking APTA signs on the front of each bus and complete chaos ensues. All of a sudden two 30's show up, a 45 and a 9X, all interspersed with taxis driving in the wrong lane, and the only way to determine which bus is which is to dash down the entire length of the block examining the sides of the buses and trying to read the drivers' minds about whether they're actually going to stop and where.
Oh holy minor Muni mumblings Matt. So they're all that happy about the APTA rodeo (they did fairly well last year apparently -- the operators brought the score down tho).
How about that bloodied woman at 5th and Market yesterday afternoon? There was quite a backup of trolleys because of her.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/19417968@N00/2539473302/
And taxis are allowed to use the bus lanes last I checked.
You may be right. However in the block I'm talking about the street used to be have painted messages in the lane that said "buses and taxis only" which was changed in the last year or so to read, "buses only."
Like I said though, I'm talking about mild annoyance...I'm not losing sleep over it.
It'd be awesome if they had all the crews rodeo up real life situations, from Trustafarians trying to Not Pay, to Peeing On the Bus and How to Prevent it, to Dodging bicyclists who run red lights and give transit ops the finger, and so on.
LOL trustafarians trying not to pay. Didn't Matt post a video about that sometime last year? Happened on the 22-Fillmore, if I remember correctly.