Smile in 3, 2, 1: Balloon Animal on Muni 02.07.12
Rider Anthony sent us this picture of ol’ yellow on a “very crowded 38L.” When you’re ass-to-crotch with strangers during commute hour, it’s the little things that count.
Balloon animals on Muni is my favorite meme, short of actual pets on the bus. (And the even rarer meme of the bus arriving just when I needed it.) I spotted my first balloon animal on a snoozing Muni in October, after which rider Kristin sent us a pic of its twin (or perhaps the same one?) on a 16X. Rider Heather sent us a blue balloon dog from 2010, and, stretching even further back, we’ve got this orange one on the 5-Fulton, via telluomo on Flickr:
Good Ol’ Fashioned Muni Drag Race At Mel’s Drive In 01.11.12
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.
Unknown Siren of the 38L 08.08.11
Photo by Thomas Hawk
You bumped into me
and I lost my balance
Irritated cuz you stepped on my nike blazers
I could hear the embarrassment in your voice, you apologized,
I’ll admit I was calling you all sorts of names inside my head
until I noticed your fresh pair of dunks
Looking down to your raw jeans, up to those beats by Dre that hung around your neck
Our eyes finally met.
It was then I decreased the aperture in my vision
blurring this crowded bus just to focus on you
pretty young thing, you smirked and took the nearest seat
Photo by Brandon Doran
Fillmore
It was a busy stop
I forced others to obstacle around me just so I could be close
and stand in front of you
Laguna
A mother and her son enter
We were both intrigued by the young boy’s innocence and curiosity
Eyes flirtatiously glancing back and forth
We both pretended not to notice
Van Ness
The seat next to you was empty
All these thoughts rushed through my head
Should I take the seat?
Am I really that easy?
Taylor
I mustered the confidence to sit next to you
Accidentally we smiled at each other
Immediately we looked away
Photo by Robert L. Livingston
You got off at Powell
Damn, what a start to my day.
It’s crazy how strangers can make you feel this way
I’ll probably never see you again
Unknown siren of the 38L
but thank you for waking me up from my deep spell
because for too long have I been stubborn to face reality
I was stuck and with one smile,
one bus ride,
you inspired me.
*If you’re out there, holla at cha girl! haha*
Photo by Tito Perez
Lots of great stories happen on the 38-L. But not a lot of people write a poem about it. Thank you, Caroline!
Will this Muni get me to Mos Eisley? 02.24.11
Eagle-eyed Star Wars fan (the original trilogy, what?) @dalbizo spotted this Jedi lookalike on the 38L-Geary this afternoon. He tweets:
Call me silly, but I think Ben Kenobi’s brother is riding on the 38L. Ken Kenobi?
When stopped by fare inspectors, did he wave his hand and say, “These aren’t the scofflaws you’re looking for.”? Yep, thought so. Clever old bastard …
No more 2.5-hour wait for the 38 01.24.11
Photo by Thomas Hawk
Through his own vigilant postings, Akit brought attention to the fact that riders were experiencing a 2.5-hour gap in service between the 38L-Geary and regular old 38-Geary out in the Outer Richmond. The last 38L to run on Saturdays left 48th Avenue headed inbound at 5:37 p.m. The next 38-Geary to leave the same location after that was scheduled to leave at 8:02 p.m. Yes, you read those times right.
If you were a passenger there, you were out of luck if you wanted to catch an inbound bus between 5:37-8:02 p.m., unless you were willing and able to walk three long blocks away to either the 31-Balboa or 5-Fulton stops at Cabrillo and La Playa.
But like we said, Akit scored a victory here. Read about Muni’s reaction over at Akit’s Complaint Deparment.
Congrats, Akit and Outer Richmond Muni riders!
Brave 38 Bus Driver 08.25.10
Photo by Flickr user Jesse Johnson
“Please come to the front of the bus and pay the fare, young man.” The bus driver stood up forcefully and yelled, “This bus will not be moving until you pay the fare like the rest of the folks on this bus!”
As I entered a fairly empty 38L, I noticed something very interesting about the bus driver: He was a man on a mission…someone not to cross the wrong way or come across sideways.
Now, we’re not talking about a typical-size bus driver. We’re talking about a fairly large man in his early 40s with a very bald head. The young man smoothly walked to the front of the bus while on his cell phone, and paid a portion of the fare. The bus driver aggressively said, “Now look, I’m not playing with you, either you pay the fare like the rest of the working folks on this bus or get off my bus!”
The young man paused, switched his cell phone to his left hand, and calmly made a swing-like gesture to the driver! The driver moved away from the attempted fist swing then stood up, grabbed the operator phone, and yelled, “Now get the fuck off my bus or swing. I want you to swing so the cops could take you to jail. You’re on camera with a bus full of witnesses. You make a move!” The young man, clueless for his next act, turned and aggressively attempted to swing again, but missed. He looked around yelling, screaming, and unsure of what to do. He then got off the bus without making another gesture.
Now this is a bus driver with balls. Drivers like him take a stand and lay down the law. This made me proud to ride Muni every day. Yes, it was scary at times, but I was confident that the escalated situation was handled very appropriately. The bus driver showed commanding respect and set limits with this punk kid.
As a Muni commuter, I see punk kids trying to be smooth and slick to get away from paying fares on a daily basis. They cheat fares, punk commuters, smoke weed on the bus, start trouble on the bus, and intimidate other kids on the bus. I asked myself, Where do these entitled, disrespectful group of people get this behavior? They’re so confident in committing these acts; they’ll never experience consequences.
I felt empowered to speak out after my experience, so here I am. I felt this was a good deed and deserved a few cents from a daily Muni rider. Thanks for hiring folks that are tired to speak out and put my tax dollars to good use.
Do you have a story about a driver or fellow passenger whose actions made you proud? Have you told a Muni story to your friends at dinner? Share your Muni stories here at Muni Diaries.
Photo diary: Muni’s golden days 07.07.10
moxpox‘s photo of the 38L-Geary is so priceless, so timeless, so _______. Caption this photo in comments, please.
Faith in Muni Restored — at 6:30 AM 10.09.09
Photo by Flickr user Octoferret
I walked up to catch my bus this morning but saw it pull in to the stop just as the light changed. I was going to miss it, and that was oddly okay with me today. I wasn’t in a rush, no one else would be at work for a while, it was fine.
The light changed in my favor and I crossed, wondering why the bus was still idling in the stop. Then I saw the driver, one of my regular drivers, gesturing for me to hurry up. I ran across and climbed in.
“Sorry,” I said, “I didn’t think you would wait.” “Well, you’re one of my regulars, honey,” she said, smiling. “I wasn’t gonna leave you.” “Thanks a lot,” I told her.
When I got out of the bus at my stop I waved to her to say thanks again, and she waved back, a whole body kind of wave, like you’d do at a sporting event or a big concert, with both her arms.
If you read this, jaunty-fedora-wearing-38L-driver, you made my day.
Another day on the 38 05.14.09
I reluctantly got on the 38 inbound on Divisadero on my way to a very important final exam. A 38L was 7 minutes later but after weighing it out, I decided it wasn’t worth the wait. There was one wheelchaired man already on, a lady in a wheelchair had just gotten on, and the bus was extremely crowded, so already I was thinking I may have made the wrong choice.
As soon as the bus started moving, the lady in the wheelchair started screaming “HELP!! HELP!!! I’M NOT STRAPPED IN!!! HELP!!!” as though she was going to die. All of us standing in the front looked at each other not sure what to do. The bus driver stopped at Scott, and went back to help the lady, who even though the bus was stopped continued to scream.
In front of where I was standing was an old man, definitely in his 70s going on 80s, laughing his head off. I smiled politely, mildly freaked out by the whole thing. His eyes then darted to my wonderful quadruple-shot latte, and went “HEY! You better not spill that on me!” I politely replied, “I won’t.” He then, without any warning, went back to laughing his head off. Needless to say I was then even more spooked.
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