Baby Witnesses a Series of Blunders on the 21-Hayes 09.30.10
Photo by arlen
On Tuesday at about 5 p.m. my 19-month old daughter and I boarded the 21-Hayes inbound for our trip home from daycare. We took seats up front in the handicapped section; the bus was fairly empty so I let my daughter have her own seat rather than keeping her on my lap. Sitting directly across from us was a surly, obviously drunk man. He was issuing a stream of salacious comments in the direction of woman who had taken a nearby seat, to the tune of, “You’re a fuckin’ skinny bitch but you have a big BUTT!” After a few minutes of that she replied, “Asshole!” and moved to the back of the bus.
Now my daughter and I were the closest targets. He looked straight at my daughter and said, “Well you’re a pretty little baby! You look just like my…GRANDDAUGHTER! Want to see a picture?!” He pulled out a cell phone, poked some buttons, then leaned across the aisle to show us a photo of a baby girl (cute, actually).
At that moment the bus was headed up the steep bit of Hayes near Alamo Square. The drunk man lost his balance and rolled about 6 feet down the aisle toward the back of the bus. He landed pretty hard on a row of seats and shouted, “OWWW! I broke a rib!”
The bus came to a halt in the middle of the street, passengers started screaming, some people got up to help the guy – pandemonium. The doors were open so I decided it would be a good time to exit. My daughter, who is just learning to talk, told me, “Ride bus. Man fall down. He owwie.”
Indeed.
Be like June, and share your Muni stories here on Muni Diaries.
Got Stories From the Driver’s Seat? 09.21.10
Photo by Kate RW
I rode a 21 Hayes from downtown up to Fillmore late on Sunday, asked the driver how she was doing, she said “wonderful” or words to that effect, i said i was “fantastic” and we laughed about how things should always be this way.
After we got going I went back up to the front to ask her name. “Jackie” she said, and instinctively i replied “With such a great attitude, there has to be a Muni Diaries story about you.” (and there is!) She was unaware of the Diaries so I enlightened her, which gave her a tickle.
Then we swapped origins (she’s a native, I’m from Manchester in the UK) and got talking about earthquakes. It was then she busted out the candy! Butterscotch, even. And it turns out she has lemon sours with a sweet centre for people not having good Muni experiences. I tried to get subsequent boarders in on the party, but all i received were cold stares, as usual…
What a great Muni experience. I’m not walking home from downtown ever again.
Sure, Muni made us late, some people on the bus smell, Clipper cards don’t work the way they should, and the new turnstiles are dumb (see: Gategate). Then there are drivers like Jackie who can make our days go smoother. We’ve gotten stories about drivers here on Muni Diaries like the great post about Tammy, who decorated her bus to surprise her passengers, Vivienne, whose sweet demeanor really impressed her passengers, and this 38-Geary driver who stood up for his fare-paying passengers.
Do you have a story to share about a Muni driver? Or better, are you a Muni operator who would like to share some stories with us from the driver’s seat? We’re all ears.
Glazed and Confused 09.08.10
Photo by Flickr user Lady in the radiator
I’ve been riding MUNI for about 10 years now. My morning commute involves a three-way with the bus, the underground, and the F train. I used to wear headphones when on transit- it kind of lets you get out of the ugliness of being squashed with 1200 other people in a small, dirty, hot vehicle that starts and stops ease of a jackhammer. Headphones put you in your own world. But while I’ve had many, many terrible experiences on the bus, there’ve been some diamonds in there, too. This story is sort of a mixture of both, depending on which seat you were in.
I was waiting at a stop for the 21 last Saturday, wondering why I was even going out when I didn’t feel like it, and listening to a drunken conversation between two guys with huge fake mustaches. They had decided to explain their fake mustaches by telling people they had just come from a porn shoot, and were making up titles (their running favorite was Cumming to America). After the predict-a-bus said “Arriving” for about 15 minutes, and they’d come up with nearly every porn title ever imagined, the bus finally came.
Even when the bus is nearly empty like it was that night, I still like to sit in the back seats that face each other. The two mustaches followed to the seats across from me, and on the other side of the aisle an older couple sat across from a rather large, round, drunk hipster who somehow had a full plastic cup of beer. I hurried to sit down because I’ve been on the bus before, unlike the mustaches, and I knew that the bus driver likes to go from idle to 25 mph in half a second. Sure enough, the mustaches were scooped into the seats with a thump.
On the other side, the hipster’s beer had apparently sloshed forward (he was facing backwards), and he tried to “save” it by diving. In his drunkenness, he must’ve mistaken himself for Jet Li, when in reality he more closely resembled a garbage bag of oatmeal, and he sprawled onto the floor/old couple and completely covered them in beer. The lady gave a loud shriek and cringed, drenched, but the man stared forward without so much as a blink. The fat hipster was now on his knees, laying in the man’s lap, and everyone was very quiet for several seconds- I counted 3 drips of beer from the lady’s nose before anyone on the bus moved. Then the hipster looked up from the old man’s lap, saw how beer-soaked they were, and began giggling furiously. He didn’t even attempt to apologize as he peeled himself up off the floor and sat back down.
The couple waited until everyone finally looked away and then moved to another seat, embarrassed. The hipster was still giggling when he leaned over and told me “You know what the funny part is? The funny part (burp), the funny part is, I think they’re going to the same party as me.” I don’t know how he figured that, but when the old couple got off the bus two stops later, damned if he didn’t follow them. And he even looked up at me in the window and mock-splashed them again with the plastic cup, to a wave of laughter from the bus.
And then one mustache pointed to the poor couple walking away and said “Dude. Glazed and Confused.”
Woman waiting for bus injured at 21-Hayes stop (w/update) 04.28.10
Update (7:31 a.m., Thursday): The Examiner has more — a driver was already fleeing a hit-and-run with another vehicle. The woman at the shelter sustained broken bones, but her injuries aren’t life-threatening. From The Examiner:
The suspect, a 35-year-old man, rear-ended a vehicle while headed westbound on Hayes Street near Baker Street at 6:40 p.m., Lt. Liam Frost said.
Fleeing the collision, the driver threw his Ford truck into reverse, but ended up jumping the curb going backward, striking a woman and taking out the bus stop, Frost said.
The woman, said to be in her late 30s, sustained broken bones, but her injuries were not life-threatening, he said
Original post: This report comes via @theSusyness:
I saw the photo on facebook. The bus stop was plowed into by a car, a woman was sitting in the bus shelter waiting for the 21 bus. I’m hearing that the driver has fled, believed hit & run. Originally I was told the pedestrian was killed, but now I am hearing the woman is alive. It happened today, just an hour or two ago.
We’ll update this post when/if we learn more. We really hope the victim is okay.
Photo Diary: Metrosexual Rage on the 21-Hayes 02.22.10
Photos by KayVee.INC
Saw the above gem via @nom_de_guerre this weekend. Indeed.
And then this screed came into my Google Reader this morning, via Mission Mission. I call it “Pastry Rage on the 5-Fulton.”
I dunno. Looks like slightly different handwriting to us. Check out the difference between the two “ON THE”s. Different N. Different H.
Still, we hope this is the beginning of something new and totally life-altering. Or something.
Bike Theft on Muni 12.16.09
Photo by Flickr user juicyrai
Muni rider Sara sent us the following tale of jackassery on the 21-Hayes:
The rider caught my eye from the second we boarded the 21 at Market and Montgomery on Monday night. I noticed as the cute 20-something with amazing curly hair slipped his bike on the front rack before jumping aboard, sitting in the very first seat across from the driver. I noticed as he chatted nicely with the driver about the new line changes, and how he groaned with the rest of us about the obscenely loud speaker (seriously, that’s another entry – since the Muni updates on Saturday, some of the speakers have been blaring out of control). And then I also noticed how he dashed off the bus lighting fast on Hayes and Buchanan as the driver yelled something muffled. All I made out was “Your bike!” But that’s all that mattered. Even from the watchful eye of the first seat, the 20-something’s bike was snatched off the rack before he could stop it.
I was floored, but as word traveled around the bus, people came forward with other stories about bikes being jacked off the front of the bus (“They took one from a group of tourists!”). Is this a common occurence? It struck me as really sad. And slightly annoying, because the driver wouldn’t leave until the police came, so we all had to wait for the next bus to arrive. It was a bonding moment on the 21 last night, no doubt, but I’m guessing the poor guy never got his bike back.
It’s ridiculous enough to get your phone snatched out of your hands on the bus, and now your bike might be next?
Did your bike get stolen on Muni or did you witness what Sara saw? Let Muni Diaries know.
Obit-lettes: 21-Hayes, 10-Townsend 12.03.09
Photo by Flickr user kodama (home)
SFMTA’s December 5 service changes include the elimination of portions of bus routes, in addition to the total elimination of some routes, and in other cases, increased service. A few riders wanted to share their thoughts on those parts of routes that will go the way of the dodo come this Saturday. First, here’s Noah, sparing no words for how he really feels about lopping off the Fulton portion of the 21-Hayes:
Good riddance.
Before the death of the Fulton portion of the 21-Hayes, people who lived on Fulton between Stanyan and 8th Ave had the benefit of two buses, the 5 and the 21. People who boarded the 21 on Hayes anywhere East of Divis had the benefit of zero buses during rush hour, because the 21 was always too full to stop.
Now, those of us who ride the 21 in a neighborhood where only the 21 goes by actually have a bus we can ride during rush hour.
SF Appeal has a helpful explanation of what exactly will be happening to the 21.
Next up is Muni Diaries favorite Tara, with a tale of woeful days ahead without her 10-Townsend:
Once BART drops me off at Embarcadero each morning at about 8:50, I scramble frantically, depending on what the NextBus prediction says, to Fremont and Market, awaiting my golden chariot: the 10-Townsend. It, usually reliably, takes me from downtown to the north end of town. It’s quiet, filled with polite folks (except for that one old guy I fought with that time), and rolls through one of the most thriving parts of town at 8:55 a.m. on a weekday. That said, it, um, pretty much empties by the time we pass Sansome and Lombard.
Though some lines are meeting their demise come Dec. 5, others, like the 10, are simply getting rerouted at certain points. Though yuppies like me should be able to deal with a minor glitch in his or her morning bus routine, yuppies like me end up having the biggest shitfits over this very thing. Total White Whine, if you will.
The long and short of it is that the 10 is now turning west on Jackson, instead of taking me all the way north, to my building at North Point and Stockton. I will miss you, that-part-of-the-10. Instead of jamming to my iPod or reading some to-be-a-movie-soon novel from Oprah’s list of recommendations, I usually preferred to stare out the window and watch the hubbub unfold. These are people going to work, bustling around in their businesswear and messenger bags. It actually makes me happy to be going to work, too, like we’re all in some sort of metropolitan club from 9-6 on weekdays. The best part was getting to see it all from my chariot, above the fray. I can still do some of that…but then I’ll have waited 10 minutes for a 10 minute bus ride, only to require another 15 minutes of walking. I might just have to bid adieu to the 10 altogether and walk the whole way, as it might not be worth the hassle when all is said and done.
Ultimately, if it’ll save Muni some cash, I can deal with it. The only thing it does is force me to leave the house about 15 minutes earlier in the morning, allowing me time to walk from downtown to Way Up There. Or, it forces me to hop on a 9x or a 9BX (soon to be rechristened the 8X, etc.), in the event I feel like a nice pushy morning ride or an elbow to the ribs is needed to jolt me awake for the day ahead. Either way, I will deal with it. But it doesn’t stop me from complaining about it here.
We’ll give you a break, Muni, if it’ll save you the cash. But try to cut us some slack next week while we all begrudgingly try to turn the speeding freight train around on our befuddled morning selves.
Check back tomorrow for the last of our Muni obituaries. It will be an all-day tribute to the almost-dearly departed 26-Valencia.
Like a Rock (Post-Deluge Musings) 10.20.09
Photo by Flickr user John “K”
“If you want to, go for it.”
That’s how the guy standing in front of me on a packed 21 replied when a woman politely tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Would you mind moving down?”
When I say packed, I mean you-can-barely-see-a-patch-of-floor packed. The sheets of rain drove more commuters than usual to seek solace on the 21 Monday night. But this guy didn’t seem to care. It must have been something about that stretch of bar he was holding, about five seats back from the front door. The preppy-looking twentysomething was holding it like he meant it, looking straight ahead and not caring that people were forced to flood around him, like water being diverted by a rock in the middle of a stream. For a painfully long 30-minute ride, he stood there with legs solidly planted, not moving an inch even as more and more people piled on.
I can understand not wanting to give up a seat or a spot near the back door. But his particular position offered no obvious advantages over a spot, say, three feet to the right. Am I wrong in finding his lack of common Muni courtesy unacceptable?
Oops, Missed the Turn There 10.20.09
We found this picture on Twitter via @boyinsf, posted Oct. 17. Whoa there, Mr. Bus.
SF Appeal has some video of this bizarre situation, along with no explanation from Muni as to how it happened.
Did anyone else see this? Can anyone explain this? The truth, as always, is subjective …
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