The Latest on Muni Diaries

Photo diary: Mutual Slump   07.29.10

Mutual slump

Love this. Photo by Justin Beck.

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Written by jeff      ( Write a comment )

Photo diary: Timeless Muni Streetcar   07.28.10

San Francisco circa 2010
Photo by jonathanpercy

“San Francisco circa 2010″ is the photographer’s title for this photograph. Indeedily.

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Written by jeff      ( Write a comment )

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

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Let’s Play Muni Madlibs   07.27.10

Quick, give me an adjective and a noun to describe an object that was found on Muni today.

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

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Written by eugenia      ( Write a comment )

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.

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Written by eugenia      ( 3 Comments )

About this weekend’s ‘detorus’   07.26.10

Delays & Detorus
Photo by chainsmokingbluemonkey

A few of you keen observers spotted something rather peculiar this weekend, even by Muni standards. Citywide, Muni’s NextBus marquees displayed the message above concerning Muni service and Sunday’s SF Marathon. 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.

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Written by jeff      ( 5 Comments )

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.

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Written by jeff      ( 8 Comments )

Weekend Photos: The Things We Hold   07.23.10

The Things We Hold
Photo by eviloars

Too much going on to spill too many 1s and 0s here. Also, Happy Hour at Secession Art and Design, tonight.

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.

empty43masonic
Photo by moxpox

In the bus which is going in the opposite direction there are always empty seats.
Photo by StevenBrisson

Just me on the Muni then
Photo by Mr Ush

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Written by jeff      ( 1 Comment )

Muni’s 8.1 mph average, visualized   07.23.10

Average instantaneous Muni speed at each location

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?

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Written by jeff      ( 1 Comment )

More on Back-Door Clipper Readers   07.23.10

thank you
Photo by messtiza

On Monday, Beth posted a reasonable question: Why are Muni buses equipped with Clipper readers at the back door when Muni’s policy for bus boarding says, explicitly, that they only allow front-door boarding at this time? We had read that Clipper readers were installed back there because the agency wanted to have them in place in case they eventually did enact a back-door boarding policy. 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.

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Written by jeff      ( 4 Comments )