Weekend photos: Heard It Comin’ 07.30.10
Rejected by Muni. Twice 07.30.10
Thursday after work, I saw the 47 idling at a red light before turning left at the corner of Beach and Powell. Great: I'm a few steps from the route's origin, and the light's still totally red. Surely, if I knock on the door (the bus was technically still touching its stop), I'll be let on with plenty of time for everyone to be on schedule.
Nope. Read more...
N-Judah with an aversion to westward travel 07.29.10
9:09 p.m.: commotion in the N outbound.Door is stuck and power is out. Greaaaat!Read more...
9:16 p.m.: after rolling backwards for a sec the door has finally opened.
If Lady Gaga were two guys riding Muni Metro … 07.28.10
The Latest on Muni Diaries
Photo diary: Mutual Slump 07.29.10
Photo diary: Timeless Muni Streetcar 07.28.10
Photo by jonathanpercy
“San Francisco circa 2010″ is the photographer’s title for this photograph. Indeedily.
A God’s-Eye View of Muni 07.27.10
Eric Fischer is up to no good again. Here, he’s posted an animated version of Muni vehicle movements for all of June 2010, with data provided by NextBus.
Why can’t I take my eyes off the 108-Treasure Island?
Can someone (or many of you) please set this to music and share with the rest of us? kthxbai
Let’s Play Muni Madlibs 07.27.10
Remember Muni Mad Libs from the opening party for the Outbound show at Secession Art and Design earlier this summer? We posted and tweeted some your best Muni Madlibs from the opening, and today we’ve got more for you from last Friday’s closing party:
“Riding Muni is like dating curdled milk who has a profound unattainable itch.” – Carey B.
“Riding Muni is like dating crow who stuck a big turkey in my bag.” – Henry and Kelli
“Riding Muni is better than getting tickets because I didn’t move my car in time … oh, wait, that still happens.” – Tara
“Riding Muni is better than walking down the road feeling bad.” (ouch) – Henry
“A wicked goose egg was found on Muni line eleventeen today in Bayview. Passengers on the bus were clucking when the discovery was made, making this the most curvaceous bus line in the city today.” Kelly
“A hellacious trumpet was found on Muni line 4012 today in Hunters Point. Passengers on the bus were crumping when the discovery was made, making this the most slaughtered bus line in the city today.” – Phil
“An elliptical piece of concrete was found on Muni line 50 today in Noe Valley. Passengers on the bus were flying when the discovery was made, making this the most lovely bus line in the city today.” – Johnny
“A hairy motorcycle was found on Muni line 461 today in Nopa. Passengers on the bus were crying when the discovery was made, making this the most hopeful bus line in the city today.” – Anita
“A bright button was found on Muni line 37 today in Bernal Heights. Passengers on the bus were skiing when the discovery was made, making this the most curvy bus line in the city today.” – Vidya
New Breed Found on Muni 07.26.10
Photo by Flickr user Janna Lauren
The mild summer of San Francisco brings the fascinating migration of many animals, including the Rainbow Munisaurus, which spends the season near the urban mountain ranges where food source is plentiful and the temperature is comfortable.
Found something else amazing on Muni in our urban jungle? Let us know.
About this weekend’s ‘detorus’ 07.26.10
Photo by chainsmokingbluemonkey
It was one of those errors introduced “upstream,” as they say, evidenced by lachtaylor‘s iPhone screenshot:
“Detorus,” eh? I think that’s Latin for “detour.”
Hey, maybe Sarah Palin should hire this Muni copywriter. You betcha!
Also, in case you missed it, another Muni-SF Marathon FAIL.
Muni SF Marathon FAIL 07.24.10
Jessie sent us this justifiably confused email:
Um….wasn’t the 53 discontinued a few months ago? Way to go, Muni!
Maybe SFMTA is recycling from past years? No, the date is right. Unless this sign is from … ah, screw it.
Weekend Photos: The Things We Hold 07.23.10
Photo by eviloars
Muni news of the week:
- Muni Driver Clothing Theft No Longer A Novelty, Now A Pattern (SF Appeal)
- Can Scott Wiener Ride ‘Fix Muni Now’ Bus to Victory? (SF Weekly)
- Surprise Vote by Pro-Transit Supes Against Vehicle License Fee Measure (Streetsblog SF)
- New Clipper Cards Not Without Problems (CBS 5)
- ‘N-Word,’ Assault on Muni Platform Lead to Felony Hate-Crime Charges (SF Weekly)
- Arrest Made of Muni Mechanic in Late-Night Transfer Racket (Streetsblog SF)
Weekend service updates from SFMTA:
On Sunday the annual San Francisco Marathon will begin from The Embarcadero and Mission at 5:30 a.m., with staggered starts until 6:30 a.m. The race route will loop along The Embarcadero, through the Marina to the Golden Gate Bridge, south on Lincoln Boulevard, through Golden Gate Park and east to 3rd Street and The Embarcadero, behind the ballpark.
From midnight to 2:30 p.m. northbound Embarcadero between 3rd Street and Broadway and southbound Embarcadero between Broadway and Harrison Street will be closed.
In additions to the Metro lines F Market, K Ingleside, T Third, L Taraval, M Ocean View, and N Judah, the following Muni bus routes will be affected:
1 California
2 Clement
5 Fulton
6 Parnassus
9 San Bruno
10 Townsend
12 Folsom/Pacific
14 Mission
18 46th Avenue
19 Polk
22 Fillmore
24 Divisadero
27 Bryant
28 19th Avenue
31 Balboa
33 Stanyan
37 Corbett
38 Geary
43 Masonic
44 O’Shaughnessy
48 Quintara
49 Van Ness
71 Haight/Noriega
Finally … photos! Enjoy.
Photo by moxpox
Photo by StevenBrisson
Photo by Mr Ush
Muni’s 8.1 mph average, visualized 07.23.10
I’m in charge again, but just for today. I think even if Eugenia were around, though, she’d recognize the beauty and value of Eric Fischer’s info-graphic here. Take it away, Eric:
The colors are the same as in the Month of Muni map but the effect is very different. Except on the cable lines, which are genuinely slow, you can see here that the Muni vehicles move quickly when moving but have their average speed slowed by spending a lot of time stopped.
The difference is that instead of drawing a line from each sampled location to the next in a color corresponding to the average speed across the whole distance, this one plots only the sampled points themselves, with the instantaneous speed the vehicle was moving at the moment it crossed that point. The unfortunate part is that you can hardly see the subway because the reporting there doesn’t interpolate nearly as many points as you get for vehicles on the surface. But on the surface you can see the slowdown at every corner. The plotting gets fuzzy in the Financial District because of noise in the GPS signal from the tall buildings.
Black is stopped (less than 3 mph). Red is slow (3-5 mph). Blue is overall average operating speed (5-9 mph). Yellow is fast service (9-19 mph). Green is rapid movement (faster than 19 mph). Data from NextBus, April 13-June 6, 2010.
See a larger version of the graphic here. Information is beautiful, what?
More on Back-Door Clipper Readers 07.23.10
Photo by messtiza
That was substantiated by a comment on Beth’s post from Jake, who says he’s a Clipper employee (yay for Clipper employees reading Muni Diaries!).
But SFMTA spokesman Paul Rose got back to us on the question of why they’re there, and his answer might surprise you.
“There are readers in the back for busy bus lines, at busy times of day. When we can have a representative back there, we try to use the back door for boarding to speed things up.”
Sounds logical enough, but I wanted to make sure I understood correctly. “So, this is basically a) driver’s discretion, and b) only when SFMTA can get another employee back there to check for Fast Passes (until they’re phased out) and to make sure their Clipper cards are being tagged?” Yep.
Asked about SFMTA rolling out an official back-door boarding policy, Rose couldn’t commit to any specific date, or whether it’s even under serious consideration now.
So there you have it. If you’re lucky enough to legitimately back-door board a Muni bus, let us know.
