Photo by Flickr user myelectricsheep
This post from BART and Muni rider “E” is cross-posted on BART Diaries, which you should be reading also …
Because of a knee injury, this week I had to take the T line to Embarcadero BART station for my daily trans-Bay commute (rather than bike as I usually do because it’s faster, more convenien, and comfortable than riding Muni). While I’m thankful to have the public transportation option, I had to notice once again how incredibly rude Muni riders are in comparison to BART users.
1) Smoking marijuana right on the station platform
2) Spitting on the platform
3) Blocking the doorway
4) Talking extremely loudly on cell phones
5) Loudly telling offensive stories about drugs and sex
6) Urinating or otherwise soiling train
7) Putting feet on seats
8) Letting animals sit on seats
9) Calling me a “fucking bitch” and threatening to kick me when I asked the man to pick up his dog.
After the last incident, I walked up to a police officer in our car to ask for help and he just told me, “I’m getting off here”. Having to ride with the threatening dog owner after the police officer refused to help me was awkward, to say the least.
Why does riding Muni always feel like being taken hostage by rude, dirty, and threatening people while everyone else just looks the other way — including the police? BART doesn’t feel that way.
I’ll be glad to get back on my bike.
Related posts:
um. Wow. What’s remarkable to me about this entry is that:
1. I’m confident that most of the things on that list happen on BART as well
2. Most of them don’t really count as ‘rude’ in my book, at least not around here
3. I can’t believe that there wasn’t an entire entry about the dog person and the threat of violence. Um. really. You’re saying that a police officer completely blew you off when you were threatened with violence? And that goes on the same list as door blocking and cell phone talking?
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Bottom line: there really is too much bullshit on Muni.
I know that I’d like to do something more than comment on blogs to take some action and push Muni and the city to to address what the Brits call “anti-social behaviour“.
I just looked at Rescue Muni’s site. Do they do much of anything?
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E, if you say you’ve never seen any of those things happen on BART then you’re either trolling or you have incredibly poor eyesight. I debated using some harsh language to mock some of your nine points, but I feared you might run to the police to have me arrested for offending your delicate Victorian sensibilities.
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SOULJA GIRL UP IN IT WOOOOOAH I’MMA SUE WHERE’S MY HAT
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I think BART leans more towards the passive-aggressive jerk kind of rudeness while Muni is home to the insane kind of rudeness.
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sounds like the whole world is out to get you
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While we could do some kind of a economic, class, and cultural anthropological study on why some people might think that Muni riders are given to more “rude” behaviors than BART riders (an assessment that I disagree with), I just have to say that I actually kind of dig the offenses on this list.
I’m not being sarcastic when I say that I actually kind of love it when #4 (talking extremely loudly on cell phones) or #5 (loudly telling offensive stories about drugs and sex) happens. Maybe it’s the former reporter in me but god, do I love eavesdropping on people on the bus!
I agree with Erik that BART is given to the passive-aggressive kind of douchebaggery. I much prefer rudeness in my face than behind my back.
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Everything about BART is highly policed and controlled. It has 300 Bart police, the entire city of San Francisco only has 4 times that. All the stations require expensive fare to get into, the agents enforce gate jumping quite strictly, there’s functioning cameras everywhere with people in control booths monitoring them, police actively patrol the cars. It’s basically an authoritarian dream.
MUNI is pretty much the opposite of all of those things. There’s open platforms, 1 in 10 are evading fare, half the cameras don’t work, nobody is monitoring them live anyways, a lot of MUNI employees tend to pretend like nothing is happening when something is going down…
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I will most likely be called a racist but all of San Francisco and most especially MUNI has become a third world country. People from various cultures who live here now urinate or spit wherever they want to in public. In some cultures speaking loudly or trashy is the way of things; the more obnoxious and loud, the better. I think it’s hard for the minority to think of this behavior as civilized but just travel to any country south of our boarder or even to to those states in the south east of this country, and you’ll find all the same behaviors. I’m not sure I’m offended by any of it, except maybe the spitting. I just wish people would kiss and make out on MUNI more. I feel we need all the love we can get on this crazy transit system.
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Thanks for all the comment therapy! I really feel much better as I read these and get a good laugh at MUNI, BART and myself.
As for the police officer, he may not have known that I came to him to make a complaint. I said, “excuse me” and he said “I’m getting off here” and that was it. At the time I thought he was saying, “I can’t help you now, I have to get off here”. For all I know, he though I was trying to get passed him and he just wanted to let me know he was getting off the train.
Regarding Daishin’s comment, all of the above complaints were about people who seemed to be American.
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eugenia Reply:
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Hmm “American” is a loaded word here, isn’t it?
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Daishin Reply:
November 3rd, 2009 at 3:27 am
Well I imagine that most of the people we’re talking about here ARE American. I never doubted that. It’s just different customs from those people whose ancestors came from elsewhere, which includes all of us.
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I think the reason most of this behavior goes on is because nobody wants to say/do something about the offending actions. Everyone has become so PC and scared to defend themselves that MUNI has turned into a rolling ghetto on wheels. I can understand why women might feel reluctant about defending themselves against a man, but any red-blooded man with balls between his legs should automatically spring into action and defend a woman (and other men) if some jerk is making the MUNI ride uncomfortable for everyone in the train. Even men these days on MUNI are weak pussies, keeping their mouths shut rather than calling bullshit out for what it is. The thugs who ride it keep getting away with foolishness because they can count on you being scared, that’s why!
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