I reluctantly got on the 38 inbound on Divisadero on my way to a very important final exam. A 38L was 7 minutes later but after weighing it out, I decided it wasn’t worth the wait. There was one wheelchaired man already on, a lady in a wheelchair had just gotten on, and the bus was extremely crowded, so already I was thinking I may have made the wrong choice.
As soon as the bus started moving, the lady in the wheelchair started screaming “HELP!! HELP!!! I’M NOT STRAPPED IN!!! HELP!!!” as though she was going to die. All of us standing in the front looked at each other not sure what to do. The bus driver stopped at Scott, and went back to help the lady, who even though the bus was stopped continued to scream.
In front of where I was standing was an old man, definitely in his 70s going on 80s, laughing his head off. I smiled politely, mildly freaked out by the whole thing. His eyes then darted to my wonderful quadruple-shot latte, and went “HEY! You better not spill that on me!” I politely replied, “I won’t.” He then, without any warning, went back to laughing his head off. Needless to say I was then even more spooked.
So if that wasn’t enough, immediately behind the wheelchair lady still screaming about how she was going to die from not being strapped in, a middle aged woman started screaming. Apparently a child (she looked like she was maybe 5) was playing with her mother’s blackberry and it appeared as though she was taking pictures of the woman, but she really didn’t look old enough to know how. The woman started screaming louder and louder “She’s taking pictures of me!! She’s taking pictures of me!!” Then the mother took the phone back from her daughter, but then held it up to actually started taking pictures of the woman! The driver yelled at her to put the phone away–he was still struggling with the wheelchair lady–but instead the woman got up and smacked the mother and I couldn’t tell from my angle, but I’m pretty sure she hit the kid too. The kid started crying.
So now there was three people yelling, a kid crying, and a crazy man laughing like mad.
At this point, seeing that we were not leaving any time soon and slightly afraid for my own life, I left the bus and walked back to Divisadero to catch the 38L, as quite a few others had done as well. By the time the 38L had caught up to the other bus, it was stopped again at Laguna, the bus driver again was out of his seat fighting off the crazies.
I’ve witnessed A LOT. I’ve gotten a concussion from the 47 hitting a car, and on the 22 a crazy tweaker screamed he was going to rape me if no one would listen to him. But this seriously tops everything.
If you get stuck among a busload of screaming vertebrates, or have any other Muni- or BART-related tales to tell, send them to us.
Photo by Flickr user digiyesica
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Anyone else getting a “Bob” from Twin Peaks vibe from the photo?
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people are cranky. tell me more about the tweaker’s rape threat!
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Wait — the lady in the wheelchair got up and smacked the woman with the phone? And yet she couldn’t get up to strap in her wheelchair?
(Also: the randomly-generated captcha for this comment is “low-income remorse,” which seems somehow fitting.)
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Yeah I want to hear about the tweaker rape threat and more importantly, your concussion! What happened?! I smell another Muni Diaries post in the making…
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Oh man. Yeah I dunno what it is about the 38 but it’s always full of crazies. For me it’s usually weirdos trying to hit on me on top of people not all there. That’s why when I want to go to Japantown I just take the Filmore bus. Longer and more crowded but never a problem.
I don’t know what it is about people and their pictures getting taken. One time while waiting for the 67, I was checking my twitter on my phone and this lady started accusing me of taking her photos and for me to stop it (even though the phone wasn’t pointed full on on her).
At any rate, I feel sorry for the muni driver and glad you got off heh.
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