Raise a glass of OJ and wish Muni a better week
Because really, how could it be any worse? And when we say better for Muni, we really mean better for the hundreds of thousands of people who rely on the public transit system every day.
But before we get there, we’ve got a little catching up to do. Over the weekend, we received the following from Muni rider Darryl:
Although it’s probably not much of a surprise, but I think this week was probably one of Muni’s worst weeks for service since Brown was in office.
There were unexplained delays 3 out of 5 days headed between Castro Station and downtown. The usual 100-200 people waiting at rush hour.
[Friday] at 8:50am I took a snapshots [above] of almost the entire Muni fleet stuck between Van Ness and Embarcadero outbound at morning rush hour. Luckily got to work only 15 minutes late, but I feel sorry for anybody trying to get outbound or get anywhere later. No shuttles, no ETA, no explanation.
And to follow up on last Friday’s accident involving a pedestrian getting struck by and trapped under an M-Ocean View, Muni rider Allen showed us more from the scene, seen below. Go here for the original post, which includes photos sent in by Christopher. (The victim is alive, but reportedly in serious condition.)
The week was enough to dampen our attempt at keeping up rosy Muni dispositions. That’s saying a lot. At one point, we even condoned the use of taxis. Oh lord, forgive us, as we know not what we do.
So yes, here’s hoping the worst is behind us, and we can all get back to smelly, crowded, hot, wet trains and buses that get us to work only 12 minutes late.
I would like to ask the general question to folks at Muni Diaries. Do you think it would be helpful for the over-all attitude of the riders as well as MUNI itself if the MTA or MUNI would acknowledge publicly what the state of the system actually is? It seems to me that by glossing over serious problems with management, MUNI employees, and policy, it makes it seem that there are two realities: the world of MUNI where everything is ok, and the world of riders where we see the sad truth everyday. To me there is a huge disconnect between the two as reflected by SFMTA and MUNI’s website. According to the PR coming out of the transit system, nothing seems to be amiss.