Cable Car Confessions #11: Top 10 Manners
Time for the June 2009 edition of Cable Car Confessions. This month, Laura shares 10 common-sense etiquette rules for the cable car, some of which apply to all Muni vehicles. Pay attention, riders!
Ding ding all aboard. “Next stop Powell Street Chinatown. Tickets please show me your tickets please.” The locals know the following 10 ten list of manners and etiquette on the cable car. Some I agree with and others I try to remember to follow. Either way, riding the cable car is my favorite method of public transportation. Wouldn’t it be yours if you lived in San Francisco?
I have some questions for the woman I saw applying her mascara the other day, during rush hour on the cable car. Does she know that there are some spoken and unspoken manners and etiquette rules? My cable car confession to you is that I wish I knew some of the items on this list before I started riding the cable car. It was a lot of fun learning them though. (Click here to get all caught up with the other cable car confessions.)
Top Ten: Manners and Etiquette on the Cable Car
1) Please have your cable car pass and money ready for the cable car conductors. It must get very trying to wait for locals and tourists to search for their passes. Over and over again :)
2) Try to stand at the cable car sign. Do not try to get on the car while standing in the middle of the road. I have heard some cable car drivers yell at those passengers some lovely choice words.
Trust me, it’s better to not have this happen. I was so embarrassed.
3) The cable car can become packed with people. You can start to feel like a sardine tightly packed in a can. When this happens be aware of your elbows and whose feet you might be stepping on.
Uh sorry mister man wearing a suit. I didn’t mean to elbow you!
4) Ah yes and now we come to ‘the quiet and try not to use your cell phone rule.’ This rule is more like a courtesy to other passengers. Passengers that are looking for a quiet ride home and because of the tight cable car quarters can hear everything you’re saying. I need to remind myself of this rule when my friend “Katie” calls to tell me about her guy-dating drama.
Shhhh Laura!
5) Smile and enjoy. A camera is usually needed for the full San Francisco cable car experience.
6) Pull the cable for the next stop or ask two stops before your stop so the conductors know to slow the cable car down. Having to walk up the San Francisco hills to your missed destination can be very trying on your knees.
Trust me.
7) If you hear two bells, the cable car is about to stop. One bell it’s ready to go.
I love to hear these bells throughout the day.
8 Please help tourists with directions and pictures.
I guess this is the ‘treat others the way you would like to be treated’ rule.
9) While riding on the cable car listen for other cable car confessions.
10) Try to apply your makeup before getting on the cable car. Get up earlier and do it at home. Just know that I wish I could put my mascara on while a cable car is twisting and turning.
How do you do it without getting it in your eye?
Related posts:
This thing again? This “local” gets quite a few things wrong. If you’re going to try to give people etiquette lessons, you might want to make sure you’re correct first.
#2 — dubious. Cable cars don’t actually stop at the signs. They usually stop in the middle of the intersection. They won’t yell at your for boarding in the middle of the street. They like it when you get on promptly. If you just stand next to the sign, you might get left behind.
#6 — completely wrong. If you touch that cable you will really get the anger of the driver and conductor. Just tell them you want a stop. Don’t touch the cable/bell. If you actually ride any of the cable cars, you’d see the signs EVERYWHERE that say DON’T PULL THE CABLE.
#7 — completely backwards. One bell is stop. Two bells is clear to go.
6 out of 10? That’s a D-
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Ditto. Pulling the cable, indeed merely touching the cable, and you will, to quote the great Walter Sobchak, enter a world of pain. There may even be yelling. Big no-no.
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Umm…. I live on the Hyde street line and if you don’t assert your right to board the car by standing in the road the operator will assume that you are a tourist and blow by you without stopping. And why would you tell the operator that you’d like him to stop two stops before your stop when there are signs telling you to alert the driver a half block before your stop? Hahahah, pull the chord? Give it a shot and report back…
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Here’s my tip:
–Always be a single passenger, odds are better on getting a spot on the car, plus better chance for the Cable Car to stop if you are the sole passenger at the stop and it’s packed.
–Always board the cable car at the first stop after the turnaround. Muni is packing the car about 1/2 full at the Powell turnaround, so you’ll get a shot at a spot.
–Show you are a local by showing your fast pass at the approaching Cable Car. Operators will most likely stop for the locals. Worked for me when a packed Hyde car was approaching and I flashed my pass and the car stopped just for me.
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Yay! We Manner Ladies appreciate any/every effort to further the state of civility on mass transit. Carry on!
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