30-Stockton and 45-Union/Stockton Reroute to Last Four Years 12.22.11
Photo by Jamison Wieser
Muni Diaries has learned that the 30-Stockton and 45-Union/Stockton will be rerouted in the Union Square area beginning next month due to Central Subway construction. The reroutes will last “approximately four years.” A temporary shuttle will be implemented for the 8 routes.
From the SFMTA:
[A]s of Jan. 21 the 30 Stockton and 45 Union-Stockton Muni routes will be rerouted from Stockton and 4th streets to Mason and 5th streets for the duration of Central Subway construction around Union Square, approximately four years. A temporary 8 Shuttle route will be in place between Broadway and Kearny Street and SoMa to ensure sufficient downtown capacity on the 8X Bayshore bus routes.
The 30 and 45 routes use trolley buses that require an overhead catenary wire system to power the vehicles. As construction advances for the Central Subway Union Square utility relocation and station construction, these routes must be modified to accommodate the construction activity along Stockton Street. More flexible motor buses are used for the 8X routes and will be used for the 8 Shuttle that will continue to operate down Stockton Street during peak service hours until later in the construction schedule.
Central Subway Transit Impacts
30 Stockton and 45 Union-Stockton Reroute
Southbound buses travelling to 3rd and Townsend streets will be rerouted onto Sutter Street, then south on Mason Street, east on Market Street and south on 5th Street.
Northbound buses will remain on their regular route.8 Shuttle Service
The 8 Shuttle will operate seven days a week from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
The shuttle route will begin at Kearny and Pacific then left on Broadway, left onto Stockton Street, cross Market Street onto 4th Street, turn left onto Folsom Street and left on 3rd Street.
The terminal for the Chinatown Shuttle will be at Kearny and Pacific.
The 8X/8AX/8BX Bayshore buses will maintain their current routes, according to the agency. The lines “will be rerouted at a later date to accommodate additional construction activity.”
Upskirts and Other Muni Adventures on the 45-Union 09.29.11
Photo by Shanan
Today’s winner is “ArchiJoey,” whose review of the 45-Union includes upskirts, frontal (and back) nudity, and Fleet Week pilots. Just another day on the bus, right?
45 Union/Stockton: Gone are my days of trekking from SOMA to the Inner Richmond on an odd combo of buses that varied based on a complicated algorithm I perfected over 5 years. No, for the last two years I’ve been riding in style on the 45 Union Stockton, or as my 88-year-old grandma calls it the E-car (perhaps it was called this in a pre-WWII era). I say “in style” because I’m usually able to get a seat in the lounge area in the back of the bus with the I-Banker frat boys and Tory Burch bedecked Marina girls.
From there we have a good view at the poor souls who get on in North Beach and have to do the seat tango with the Chinatown grandmas. Though sometimes we have more risque amusement in the back lounge. Once I got a good eyeful of some full frontal and backal nudity of dude who stopped to take a poop on Stockton Street in rush hour traffic.
I have also met several interesting men on the 45. There were the pilots one Fleet Week who offered me twenty bucks to lift up my skirt, the drunk tourist from Chicago who violently fell from his seat as the bus started to lurch up Union Street and got to look up my skirt for free, and the perfect guy who was literally going to the airport to move away from the Bay Area.
But perhaps its greatest attribute is the intense feat of strength that the 45 performs numerous times every day. I honestly do not think that there is a bus that is designed to go up the Union Street Hill. I imagine a group of Muni engineers sitting around trying to devise a way to defy the laws of physics and get a bus over the hill and finally saying “F&*$ it, let’s try it out.” And f*$# all, it worked.
Some days it does slow to a tortoise like crawl as it squeaks up the hill and I silently chant “I think I can, I think I can,” and at least once a week it rolls backward a few yards and I think I’m going to die on the corner of Polk Street, but the driver always seems to get us moving upwards in just the nick of time. So 45 Union/Stockton, I thank you for curing me of my fear of hills, introducing me to the fab footwear of the Marina girls, and maybe someday I can thank you for helping me find a guy who I’ll willingly let look up my skirt.
Write your own review of a Muni line on Google Places and you can win $50 tomorrow. Go on, tell us all about your Muni ride.
‘I Learned How to Get Pills on My First Muni Ride’ 04.21.11
Photo by shanan
Justin recently arrived in SF. Welcome, Justin. Take it away!
And this was the first thing I heard:
GIRL 1: Crap, you know what? I don’t think I have any more pills.
GIRL 2: Really? I thought Chris still had some from the knee thing?
GIRL 1: Nooo, those are long gone. I’m talking about from what Julie had left.
GIRL 2: Oh! Did I tell you what me made Jeff do last month? We were at (some bar I don’t remember the name of) and decided we needed some Vicodin. Nobody had any so we convinced Jeff to go to the ER and get some.
GIRL 1: Shut. the Fuck. Up. Did it work?
GIRL 2: Yeah we just told him to make something up, so we found a clinic within walking distance and he walked in and put “Gout” on the form they handed him. Voila! Vics.
GIRL 1: Huh. (thinks for a second) What’s gout?
GIRL 2: Um, I actually don’t know.
I had to hide my screen as I was tweeting this, that’s how close the quarters were that day. I guess they just didn’t care who heard.
Thanks for sharing, Justin. Now, dear reader, it’s your turn to share your Muni story.
I got big butt and I cannot lie… 10.26.10
Photo submitted by Muni rider Joey
What was this guy thinking?! Actually, we know:
“What do you want from me? I’m a guy. Yeah, a big honkin’ guy, and that’s why I just gotta sit here next to you with my legs spread wide apart because I have this equally big honkin’ mass between my legs. I can see you’re aggravated that my right thigh is on my seat and yours, but what can I do? Get a smaller package? You’ll have to ask god about that one.”
(We miss you, Muni Mind Reader!)
In the mean time, dear Sirs Spread-A-Lot, please remember: Don’t be a space evader:
Photo by PinkTentacles.com
Photographer Kristen Holden: Love Stories on Muni 04.26.10
Photographer, poet, and model Kristen Holden‘s pictures of Muni riders have caught our eye for a while. We found her on Flickr as “SFLoveStory” and tracked her down to find out what makes Muni such a great subject. Holden grew up in Chicago and has lived in San Francisco for almost seven years. She lives in Russian Hill with her musician boyfriend and their “talentless dog.”
What is it about Muni that inspires you to take photos there?
This simple answer is: I ride a lot and I shoot my surroundings more than I do anything else. But what makes Muni rife for photographic capture is that the exterior environment is always changing around the same structure or, like, bones of the scene. There are endless characters to make up stories about.
What’s it like taking pictures on Muni?
I think people generally assume I’m a tourist. Once in a while someone will ask me about my camera and why I shoot film (I’m currently shooting with a second-hand Canon EOS Elan II SLR with a Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens.)
Got a favorite Muni line?
I ride the 45 and 30 to get from Russian Hill, where I live, to downtown and vice versa. I take the 47 and 49 quite a bit. Oh, and I’m one of those weird people who actually rides the 19…it gets the closest to the film-processing center I go to in SoMa. I love the cable cars and streetcars too. The mint-green colored streetcar from Brooklyn (Car 1059?) is my favorite.
You can see more of Holden’s photographs on her website, Kristen-Holden.com.
Muni Cute Overload 04.22.10
Rider Joey sent in this picture taken on the 45 the other day. Yeah yeah yeah, say what you will about muzzles and stuff, but I am such a sucker for little furry animals. I mean, look at that face!
Missed Connection — Brainy Raiders Fan on the 45 10.12.09
Photo by Flickr user Photostat
Rider SlayerLady sent us her Craigslist Missed Connections ad, perhaps in hopes of finding this cutie who keeps up with football AND world affairs. If you’re out there and want to get in touch with SlayerLady, you know who to email.
Here’s my MUNI MC that I posted a few weeks ago–I just saw the ones that you compiled for your site. I only got a response from a Raider-hater but hey, at least someone read it. :)
original posting:
Raiders Beanie & Reading The Economist on 45 Union – w4m
You were sitting towards the back of the 45 bus around 9:30 AM. I spotted the Silver and Black beanie right away and was intrigued to see you also reading The Economist. (A favorite of mine, but I’ve let my subscription lapse in these hard economic times.) The combination of someone with the intelligence and inclination to read this publication paired with your preference for the “Hell’s Angels of Football” is an intriguing mix. And a few tattoos peeking out from your short-sleeve, button-up shirt too? Even better!
I would have taken a seat so I was facing you to smile and start up a conversation but you were getting off the bus at Union and Columbus just as a good seat across was freed up. I thought you might have been looking my way through your shades as I gave you the eye intently from the back row (Red-blonde hair, pink fleece jacket, blue hat). I don’t usually take the bus at this time of the AM so I hope you or someone you know reads this–or I’ll just have to have a delay of game in the morning again that leads to my relying on MUNI!
Got a Muni missed connection over the weekend? We’d be glad to play matchmaker.
Too Much Sex, Read Your Bible 09.22.09
Photo by Flickr user frantikgirl
I think the old adage about full moons bringing the crazies out is not true in San Francisco — I think the heat brings them out. So this morning’s sunny skies meant something good would be happening on the 45.
Once we dropped off all the Marina girls and the old ladies on Market Street and headed toward SOMA I noticed what appeared to be a late middle-aged man with a cane and a bible. Now, in most places, a bible is not necessarily a sign that you’re crazy, but on Muni a bible might as well be a straitjacket. Almost immediately he starts yelling really loudly, spit flying.
“Read your bibles, you’re all going to hell. Too much sex, read your bible. Only Jesus will survive the tsunami and save you from hell, it’s in the bible. Stop gay marriage, read your bible. Your generation is going to hell, read the bible.”
Most of the bus just ignores Angry Bible Guy, but this woman (who didn’t look quite all there) gets up and gets right in his face yelling, “Who are you to be telling us to read the bible, maybe you’re going to hell.”
Angry Bible Guy responds, “Act like a woman, read the bible.”
To which she tells him, “Act like a man, I bet you have a small pecker.”
Then they just start simultaneously screaming at one another until you can’t understand anything but him screaming, “Read your bible” and her imitating an ape with sound effects and a little ape dance.
Finally, the bus driver comes over the loud speaker, “Sir, Lady, you need to keep it down. Pipe down back there.” The screaming continued as I got off the bus. Oh, Lord, lease don’t let it get much hotter, I may have to take a cab.
Revenge of the Nerds 07.14.09
Photo by Flickr user bayat
I braved the crowds of tourists and shoppers in Union Square to take advantage of the July 4th holiday sales and scored a terrific deal on a new comforter. I live fairly close to downtown SF and try to walk everywhere I can within reason but catching the 45 Union back home seemed reasonable now that I was lugging this large, unwieldy bag around with me. I walked a few blocks to 3rd and Market to catch the bus, ensuring that I’d get on before the crowds destined for Chinatown boarded. I snagged the perfect seat in the last row of double seats before the final row along the back, with plenty of legroom for me to balance my bedding-bag on my feet in front of me.
Sure enough, the bus started to fill up at the very next stop. One of the passengers towered above the usual contingent of Asian women with produce bags, a tall white guy who lumbered towards the back, glassy-eyed, open-mouthed, his significant gut leading the way. My Muni-attuned spidey senses were tingling—something about this guy was a bit off. He carried himself with the awkward air of those who don’t have a good grasp on the rules of social interaction. (His sci-fi convention-style t-shirt blaring “NEXT STOP: MARS!” helped complete the impression.) As he surveyed the open seats I silently projected my intentions. Don’t you f*ing sit here, dude. Don’t even think about it. Swayed by my venomous mental force-field (or more likely by the expanse of open seats along the back row), he plunked himself down behind me. He immediately started questioning one of the people seated by the windows about an item he carried, further confirming my snap assessment that this guy did not observe the Rule of the Bus.
Driver Smoke Breaks 06.23.09
The following came to us from Matt Baume, the man behind the Muni Alerts Twitter account, among other things he’s spearheaded.
I took this photo at the end of the 41 and 45 lines, where drivers take breaks after a run. One driver is smoking. She doesn’t have a driver number on her uniform.
This raises a tough question. Smoking at transit stops is illegal in SF — Muni maps spell out the exact code that prohibits it — but what are drivers supposed to do if they’re addicted to nicotine? Where are they supposed to go to smoke on their break?
This lady seemed like a nice person but her smoke was stinking up the whole bus stop. I don’t know what the solution is, aside from firing smokers. I guess you could argue that smokers are unfit to drive buses, since they’ve chosen a habit that adversely affects their ability to do their job legally. But that also seems pretty harsh.
— Matt Baume
What do you think? Sound off in the comments section.
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