Here's the good news: you remember how Muni had NextBus info available for all the electric lines, but declined to make that info public, saying that the data wasn't reliable yet? Intrepid SFist reader Tom has discovered that the arrival info for all the electric lines is once again available, albeit through a tricky route. Type in this URL (we're splitting it into two lines because it's too wide for our measly 500px column):

http://www.nextbus.com/predictor/
simpleStopSelector.shtml?a=sf-muni&r=5

...and substitute your line number for the "5" in our example at the end. You'll get a page that asks you to choose your originating stop, and then sometimes after that you'll be required to choose a destination stop. (We have no idea what difference your destination makes in determining when the next bus is arriving.) If you're forced to choose a destination stop, the next page will say "No current prediction." That's when you need to hack the URL again by removing the destination argument. Change this:

http://www.nextbus.com/predictor/
simplePrediction.shtml?a=sf-muni&r=5&d=laplaya&s=MRKTMTGY&ts=FULTSTAN

To this:

http://www.nextbus.com/predictor/
simplePrediction.shtml?a=sf-muni&r=5&d=laplaya&s=MRKTMTGY

... and then it'll work.

After the jump: the bad news, which involves us being laughed at by a Muni employee and also instructions for accessing Muni's Secret NextBus map, which unlike the public map, shows the busses on the routes.

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