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Finally.
The failed experiment that is the CultureBus -- a very slow, yellow Muni bus that would take passengers around San Francisco (downtown to Golden Gate Park) to look at art and trees, running every hour or so -- will come to a merciful end. According to SFMTA, the CultureBus will be discontinued effective August 15.
Designed to "provide both residents and visitors with a new eco-friendly transportation alternative to and between San Francisco's popular museums and cultural institutions," the bus was popular with neither locals nor tourists. And for $7 a ride, the CultureBus never found a following.
Did you ever take a ride on the 74X? If so, why?
Update: Akit posted an obit here.
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Never even heard of it. And, after reading the description, don't really get it.
I rode it once - on the 18 - and I paid regular fare - and it wasn't a CultureBus. But its original advertisements and map were still on the bus.
Who wants to hold a 'funeral' service for the CultureBus, say the weekend before the service ends down at Cal Academy?
Gotta bring flowers, wear black, and bring a tombstone!
And all along, I thought the 30-Stockton was the "Culture Bus."
Maybe MUNI could name all of the routes something cute like that and charge $7 bucks to go in circles. Budget crisis solved!
I would offer up the 14-Mission as the "Stinky Bus", the 38-Geary as the "Batshit Crazy Bus" and the 41-Union as the "Arrogant Prick Bus."
The 71 is all of those all rolled into one.
The 24 would be known as the "Trans-Gay-Ghetto Bus". Done.
I live right near the 9th ave entrance to the park and would see this thing all the time. It was never even close to full. Usually there would be maybe 5 or 6 people on the thing, presumably one or two groups of tourists. Why pay $7 to ride the culture bus when you can take the N-Judah, which is probably faster, and only costs $2 (or $1.50 for most of the CB's life).
Because the 74X is faster (probably much). The Chron pointed out most of the people who rode it were looking for a reliable way to get to work. Culture bus drivers also had extra customer service training.
well at least they tried something interesting besides giving nat ford a raise.
I would have ridden it if it wasn't $7. What a rip.
I took it once. It was clean, lonely and expensive.
Sounds like most of my Friday nights.
It's a good thing Warren Hellman chipped in all that money to bring the fare down to a reasonable level.
Any chance that the demise of the CultureBus is going to revive the G-Golden Gate Park? If there's anything we can learn from this it's that people (tourists especially) will not ride a but. They might ride a train, even a slow one, but not a bus.
This one requires millions in capital expense. Hard to see how it's a better use of cash than rapid bus lines on Geary and Van Ness, though it would be nice.
The only solution to this city's public transportation problems is to extend the underground metro line to include many of the current bus lines, and take other above ground parts of Muni trains and put them underground. This city just needs to commit to a long-term plan that is financed piece by piece as each line is completed. Why we paid for above ground T-line when we could have had underground t-line, I don't know. As out of the box as our city is, it sure doesn't think very out of the box when it comes to public transit.
There's a lot of fantasy talk about how surface transit is JUST as fast as underground in SF planning. It's absurd.
I posted an obituary:
http://www.akit.org/2009/07/muni-74x-culturebus-dies-august-15th.html
Akit - my company (a book publisher of all people!) has your site blocked: This Websense category is filtered: Sex.
So hot!
That rarely happens, but in most cases, just try it again.
must be the fellatio-inspired Gav pic!
(so hot)
another one of those Big Ideas Gavin got while sitting on the can, got a big press conference, lots of laudatory praise from the local press, and was a big failure, as implementation was a joke....whether you like it or not!
Gavin? Ideas? You must be kidding. He overheard the idea at Davies one night.
It could have been cool, if they had just charged $30 bucks for the whole day which would include admission to every museum in the city. Hell, city residents would have used the thing. But nobody every thought about something simple, like a little cross-marketing. Oh, well. Dede Wilsey has her driver to take her to her museums, and the rest of us can go screw ourselves.
Muni could have worked with CityPass on allowing unlimited rides on CultureBus since many of the vouchers are along stops on the route.
The big problem with CultureBus is that it competed against well established tour companies proving similar service but to more locations. The tour agencies went to an SFMTA Board meeting and demanded the program to not start-up because taxpayer money should not pay for a tourist bus and undercut the tourism industry.
And still, to this day, the private tour companies running their double decker buses get more business and charge higher prices than CultureBus' taxpayer subsidized program.
Last weekend- I swear to GOD- I saw a Culture bus with TEN people on it. The driver must have felt overwhelmed by all the passengers.
Believe they raised the price up to $10 (for all day, of course) on July 1, 2009.
Some people are riding the CB to the de Young to see Tut - that might explain the recent sightings of double digit passenger loads. I saw about a dozen people on one of the CBs last week - that's by far the most I've seen since Cal Academy Opening Weekend last Sept.
I rode it once when my dad came to the city to avoid having to drive around looking for parking with him. There were about 7 of us on it. CB was a great thought, but poorly done. Should have made it a bigger idea w/ discounted museum admissions, etc.
@the absentee: why didn't you just take a taxi? 2 people, at $7 each, is enough to get most places in the city in a taxi.
Thank God. The city wasted approximately $1 Million on this not to mention thousands of gallons of fuel and added pollution for nothing. Never saw more than one person on it and 90% of the time it was empty.Ridiculous.
The biggest downfall of this idea was the fare. If it was priced at the regular muni fare and accepted Fast Passes and Passports, it would have more successful. Otherwise, one could get around on regular busses and trains for a fraction of the cost, and with more flexibility. Hey Muni; did you ever notice that there is not a single bus that will bring people from Union Square (where most visitors stay) to the Golden Gate Bridge (where most visitors visit)? A stop at the bridge and the Vista Point on the northern side would be nice. People might pay $7 for that.
@areallyniceguy: Have you ever used the various web sites that help you plan trips using mass transit? If so, you might notice that Golden Gate Transit runs buses that loop through the city and cross Golden Gate Bridge. They have a stop right at the toll plaza.
http://goldengatetransit.org/services/documents/Map_SF.pdf
I used to take the 44 all the time so I was very used to angry tourists being told they couldn't use their 74X transfers on it despite it going through GG Park. For me it's baffling why anyone would pay $7 to ride that bus when the N runs right by the park, the 44 runs through it and from downtown you can really take your pick from the 71, 7, 21 or 5.
Stupid bus is gone now. Long live stupid bus.