74X-Culture Bus Funeral March This Saturday
Photo by Steve Rhodes
Eve and Matt over at SF Appeal reminded us of this Saturday’s somber-yet-timely death of the 74X-Culture Bus. So SF Appeal is proposing a ride on the Culture Bus on its last day of service to our fair tourists. Go show this waste of a Muni route your love, and show the world that San Francisco still has a lot of culture, just no need for an overpriced, redundant bus route with no riders.
The Plan, from SFAppeal:
–Meet up at the Golden Gate Park Academy of Science stop at 3:45 on Saturday the 15th.
–Ride the 4 PM Culture Bus (don’t forget your $7! Sorry!) on its merry route to New Montgomery, then back.
And in honor of the 74X, which I am sure most of us have never been on, Muni rider Joey sent us the following obituary:
The 74X Culture Bus was a short lived venture of Muni. It first appeared on the scene as an enigma, “What is that pretty bus with no one on it that seems to go all over the city?” Is it a shuttle bus? Some new tour company that doesn’t quack at us as it goes by? Is it some learning vehicle that travels to under privileged school children to teach them culture?
No, it was a Muni bus. A Muni bus that traveled from the Richmond District to South of Market with very few stops in between. It promised to get from Golden Gate Park to Market in 30 minutes. This Culture Bus looked as if it was going to be the savior of all who lived on the West Side and worked on the South Side, but it was a disappointment from the beginning. The bus was never designed for locals but for tourists. If you had a Fast Pass the Culture Bus was an additional $3 (not even the cable car rips off locals like that) and the Culture Bus only ran from 10 to 5.
So, in the city’s attempt to cater to people who don’t live here and would rather get on the cheap bus, Muni has failed. Muni’s experiment in the “Hop ON, Hop Off,” tour market has reached its end. The 74X Culture Bus is survived by its cousins with many more stops, the 5 Fulton and the 38 Geary.
RIP, Culture Bus, we have fun making fun of ya! Oh, and if you’ve got pictures of your last ride with the 74x Saturday, send ’em over!