Month: January 2011

Fair? Muni Drivers Can Keep Jobs Despite Accidents

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Muni Accident
Photo by Flickr user Jamison

Some Muni drivers can stay employed despite accidents, and if they aren’t at fault in another accident within 12 months, their records can be wiped clean, SFExaminer.com‘s Katie Worth reports. What’s your take on this?

More than 16 percent of Muni drivers were at fault in at least one accident last year, and a handful of them were in three avoidable collisions in 2010 alone.

But of the 348 drivers who were in preventable collisions in 2010, only seven might be fired.

Those who remain employed have to make sure to avoid being at fault in another accident within 12 months, after which their records will be cleared.

SFMTA spokesperson Paul Rose told SFExaminer.com that “Ninety-nine percent have either zero or only one preventable collision, and that’s saying that the vast majority of our operators are exceptional at what they do.” You can read details about how SFMTA deals with operators involved in accidents over at SFExaminer.com.

To be fair, driving a bus is no easy task. The Journal of Occupational Health Psychology calls bus driving “a classic example of a high-stress occupation.” Bus drivers are at risk for health problems due to their working conditions, reports Slate.com. Last month, a woman was arrested after she attacked a New York City bus driver for, as she claimed, “driving too slow,” Slate.com reports. According to a Cornell University study, “over twenty epidemiological studies of city bus drivers reveal excess rates of mortality and morbidity for heart disease and gastrointestinal and musculoskeletal disorders.”

Do you think SFMTA’s treatment of drivers in accidents is fair?

Category: News

Wanted: Your Singing Muni Driver

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The word on our Twitter stream is that a few Muni operators have been adding some light-hearted fun on your commute:

  • “My Muni driver is announcing all the stops in a Donald Duck voice. It’s kind of amazing.” — @thelynchbox
  • “The 71L bus driver is singing the stops instead of yelling them. So awesome.” — @Grahamcrackersf
  • “This J line operator keeps doing a Donald Duck impression over the PA, and it’s freaking me out.” — @mrfb
  • “I swear my Muni driver is singing out the stops…” — @simplelife9
  • “this 38 Geary bus driver srly thinks she’s a flight attendant announcing every stop and tourist trap in a sensual voice. Lol” — @MMMeliO
  • “in response to people angrily yelling “BACK DOOOR!” on the 49,driver is now repeatedly yelling it into his own mic. Won’t stop” — @kailielaine

 

 

 

In the craziness of getting across town, I can definitely appreciate drivers who have a great sense of humor. Does anybody have audio or video of such entertaining Muni operators to share?

Category: diaries, Funny: Muni LOLs

Muni: Rare, Beautiful, Endangered?

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Photo by Todd Gilens

Most people think of buses as ubiquitous and utilitarian, but artist Todd Gilens is turning that idea on its head. Gilens has wrapped four Muni buses in beautiful pictures of endangered species that are currently roaming the streets of San Francisco. In his project, EndangerBus (Muni Diaries is a partner), Gilens is hoping that people will see public transportation in a different light.

Infusing art into everyday life is an idea that Gilens has used in many of his projects — he has designed and installed sloped bike racks on Market and Sixth that were inspired by the street plans of Treasure Island. For EndangerBus, Gilens was inspired when he learned about SFMTA’s “Transit Effectiveness Project.”

The project measured “maintenance, driving efficiencies, ridership statistics, the bread and butter of transportation engineers work. But no one was discussing aesthetics, or what wider impacts and meanings transit has,” Gilens wrote about his project. “It seemed to me that an assessment of effectiveness should include these criteria too.”

Instead of thinking about buses an advertising space, Gilens wondered if buses can be a vehicle for visual impact. “We use buses without thinking, like using a paper towel, but what if we used images to transform the bus, to give an emotive quality to buses?”

Gilens raised money to wrap four buses in photographs of the Brown Pelicans, Coho Salmon, Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse and Mission Blue Butterfly.

See the making of the EndangerBuses:

The four buses will be in operation until at least April, rotating through different lines. If you are wondering where you can catch one, check out the real time bus tracker that Gilens created with GreenInfo Network on the EndangerBus.org website:

Have you spotted one of these buses? What do you think about Gilens’s idea to transform the bus into something more than a simple vehicle?

Category: diaries, News
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