Weekend Photos: BART Edition 08.19.11
Photo by Jef Poskanzer
- Talk of the Nation episode all about new technology and free speech (NPR)
- Anonymous to BART: We Hack, We Organize, Too (The New York Times)
- Three Security Lessons From BART Anonymous Breach (Information Week)
- FCC Reviews SF Subway Cell Shutdown (CNET)
- Phone Cutoff Stirs Worry About Limit on Speech (Wall Street Journal)
- San Francisco BART leak highlights hackers ethics split (Washington Post)
- An oldie but still ok: Time Magazine’s Most Memorable Hacking Moments (Time)
The events of the last week and a half certainly provide an interesting and important discussion on technology, the law, and our expectations and rights. But the conversation seems to have gotten pretty far away from the shootings, the catalyst of it all.
I’m going to the mountains for a few days, but I’ll be back with three fun things to do next Friday!
And if you’ve enjoyed Muni Diaries this week, please vote for us in the San Francisco Weekly Web Awards! We’re going for 4. Best Public Transit Blog and 35. Wild Card (@munidiaries for best local Twitter feed). It’ll make us so happy.
Don’t forget to follow Muni Diaries on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
Enjoy these photos and your weekend!
Photo by Zac Bowling
Photo by Ingmar Zahorsky
Photo by Joshua Gatts
Photo by neutralSurface
Photo by Joshua Gatts
Broken Clipper Machine on a Crowded Bus: Should you be cited? (update) 08.19.11
Photo by Agent Akit
Update (12:39 p.m.): SFMTA got back to us on this. Turns out Kazuko was wrongly cited.
The actions described in this account are not consistent with our policy. If the reader is out of service, the patron is not cited if they have a valid Clipper card. The supervisors will remind all TFI’s of this policy.
Sadly, Kazuko will have to protest the citation. Not an easy chore.
But rider Kazuko said that the policy is still not being enforced systemwide, particularly on crowded buses:
I got on 38L at Geary and Divisadero around 5:10 pm on August 17, 2011. As you can imagine at the height of a rush hour, the bus was completely packed. I entered the bus from the middle entrance. I swiped my Clipper card which had more than $20 left on it, but the machine was not responding. I tired a few times to swipe it to no avail.
When the bus stopped at Van Ness, a few officers got on the bus to check everyone’s ticket. As I presented my clipper card, the officer told me to get off the bus, even though he had scanned my card and knewI had more than enough fare left on my card. Confused, I asked him why. He said I needed to get off the bus. I had no choice but to obey. Outside, the officer told me he had to issue me a ticket.
I told him repeatedly that I have swiped the card but the machine was broken. He said, “There are three machines on the bus. You should have walked up to ALL of them to see if they are working. As it stands now, you got on the bus without paying so it is my job to issue you a ticket.” As I had stated earlier, the bus was extremely packed. After he finished writing me the ticket, he then proceeded to tell me that, “With this ticket, you have one COMPLEMENTARY bus ride. You don’t have to pay for your next ride.”
If this some kind of joke?
We’ll get in touch with SFMTA about readers in the back of vehicles, and the policy for when buses are jam-packed. It doesn’t seem fair to me if fare inspectors are instructed to ticket under any circumstance and let riders fend for themselves protesting their citations.
Photo Diary: Missed Connection 08.18.11
Bob at All City says, “We saw each other last Tuesday in the Civic Center Station. You had smiling eyes. I had a Pentax.”
We wonder which one in the photo he’s referring to.
Add your Muni photos to our Muni Photos group pool on Flickr or email us at muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com.
Pillow Talk on the 49-Van Ness 08.18.11
Photo by juicyrai
Sometimes Muni seems like San Francisco’s living room.
I settled into a seat and the man next to me, a large scruffy older guy carrying a box of Chinese leftovers, pointed to the couple and said, “Hey, what are those?” “Pillows,” the girl said. “How much are they?” the big guy asked. The girl, a little uncomfortable already, said, “Oh we got them on sale.”
Where? The big guy wanted to know. The boyfriend tried to fend off all the questions about these shiny new pillows, but the big guy really wanted to know everything about them. “Well I hope they are comfortable. You guys look like newlyweds and you’ll probably be testing them out a lot! It’s like buying a new car, you gotta test the ride, you know what I mean?!” The people around him laughed and the big guy launched into a different conversation with another guy about cars as we passed by the car dealerships on Van Ness.
The young couple seemed relieved that the attention was off of them. By this time a new crop of passengers got onto the bus and I heard one of them say, “Hey, what’s in those boxes? Pillows? Where’d you buy those?”
A whole new thread of conversation about foam pillows was being started among the new strangers in the front of the bus. The big guy was still deep in his car conversation and I thought, Hey, this is San Francisco’s living room.
BART station ad: Business name fail? 08.17.11
BART rider Lisa asks, “Worst business name ever?” We’re pretty sure that Harry Butts Plumbing ranks higher. But we’ll take this late entry.
Also, are they saying, “Munch on me, Berkeley,” or, “Munch on me Berkeley”? There’s a difference, ya know?
Muni News: New SFMTA chief welcomed, delayed, Muni forum, SFMTA merch 08.17.11
Photo by blarfiejandro
- S.F. officers involved in parolee’s shooting IDd (SFGate)
- Welcome, Ed Reiskin! (Market Street Railway)
- Millions in savings unclaimed; after audits, Muni revealed $20 million excess overtime (SF Public Press)
- Reset SF Hot Button Series Forum on Muni Reform, Aug. 23 (Phil Ting’s Reset SF)
- SFMTA Finally to Offer Officially Branded Merch (SF Weekly)
- BART protests force new Muni director, supervisor to ride aboveground (SF Examiner)
Capturing Every Muni Photo Op: Q&A with Mike Dillon 08.17.11
All Photos by Mike Dillon
Tell us a little about yourself and how you got into photography.
I’m just your friendly neighborhood microbiologist by day, and that guy who won’t stop taking pictures of everything the rest of the time. Originally from Washington State (the side that no one has ever heard of, where it doesn’t rain), I’ve been in the Bay Area for about five years now because, well, this is kinda the place you go if you’re a microbiologist. Plus, who wouldn’t want to live in San Francisco?
In the last few years, I’ve been itching to find an artistic outlet. I spent some time toying around with photography using a couple cheap point and shoot cameras, but never really got into it. I’m the type of person who, once I commit to something, will go all out on it, but I need to really commit to it first. So one day a bit over a year ago, I finally just went for it and picked up a dSLR and hit the streets with it.
Let’s just say there was a bit of a learning curve: I think I got two to five photos I actually liked out of the first six months. Over the last year or so, I’ve gradually learned the settings and received a ton of inspiration from a number of great local photographers, many of whom have had photos featured on Muni Diaries before me. I’m still new to this with a lot to learn, but I’m working on it by just getting my camera out to take photos every day and doing my best to meet and learn from members of the amazing San Francisco photography community.
Around the World: Transit Props 08.16.11
Images: Tara Ramroop Hunt. Vive le Metro!
My personal favorite is this Victorian Metro entrance in Montmartre, Paris:
Most recently, we found this from our spotless, polite neighbors to the north: transit-rider etiquette in Vancouver. We have to wonder: does this work up there? Because it’s suspiciously akin to our own unspoken rules, broken day in and day out.
What are your international transit favorites? Wouldn’t it be nice to make it on the transit radar for something undeniably cool, like, oh, free puppies at all odd-numbered line stops?
Update (2:34 p.m.): A reader noted on le Facebook Wall that SF cable cars perhaps count toward our international fame, because those are obviously on plenty of people’s transit radars. Indeedily they are, and we love the Victorian relics of old San Francisco. For this post, I suppose we’re looking for something more today, such as, OH, puppies at every stop or ticket-purchasing via cell phone. (I’m selling it too hard now, right? Now we will never get puppies.)
Circular logic at SFMTA Lost and Found 08.16.11
Photo by Steve Rhodes
Muni Tattoo girl alerts us to this “funny if it weren’t also totally pathetic” story:
I lost my coin purse containing my Clipper and my ID a couple weeks ago, and yesterday I got a call from the SFMTA lost & found saying that someone had turned it in (bless their heart). The woman told me I would need a photo ID to collect my… PHOTO ID.
Say whatever you want about competency. I wanna be present when Muni Tattoo girl and whoever’s running the Lost and Found open up that wormhole.
Ride Muni like a boss. Our Fast Pass Clipper card holders and Muni Diaries T-shirts are all on sale 
