Your place to share stories on and off the bus.
Ever feel like: sometimes you can’t live with Muni, but other times you can’t live without it? Boy, do we know that feeling. If you’re on the lookout for the shirt that perfectly describes our love-hate relationship with Muni, we’ve found a new batch of local shirt makers for you.
Above: Studio Nico Muni Transfer shirt, $26 (get them while you still remember what paper transfers look like!). Read more
First, we lost those colorful Fast Passes. Then, we try to forget that paper transfers are on their way out. But honestly, we can’t pretend any more: the new Muni fare boxes are being installed and increasingly seen on buses in the wild. Reporter Joe Fitzgerald at the Examiner just saw one this evening, serving up less-than-pretty transfers that kind of look like receipts:
Photo credit: San Francisco Examiner
To be fair, we’ve been talking about this since, oh, 2015, and the new fare boxes (and new transfers) are designed to provide faster boarding, amongst other benefits. SFist has the scoop on how this all came to be:
“One of the biggest changes beyond having a more modern fare box is the old tear-off transfers are a thing of the past. The fare boxes will generate a printed transfer, or printed proof of payment, which has a big safety benefit for our operators,” [SFMTA Director of Transit Ed] Reiskin gushed to the SFMTA board.
I guess we can say goodbye to the unexpected delight when a generous driver gives you a Late Night transfer a few hours early. And forget about holding the bottom of your transfer to try to get by (Driver Doug will call you out, in any case, as he explains on our podcast episode recently).
For now, if you collect enough transfers in the next couple of months, you might still be able to make one of these nifty, soon-to-be-extinct craft projects:
Now and then: Muni transfer art
How long is this giant Muni transfer good for?
More Cool Muni Transfer Art
Or you could permanently commemorate how much you love the paper transfer like this impressive tattoo.
Designer Pablo Stanley (@pablostanley) rides Muni just like the rest of us, but he can animate a scene on Muni in under 30 seconds!
Well ok, maybe there’s a little time-lapse magic in the video, but it’s pretty cool to see this process nonetheless. And we definitely appreciate the blue tinted world that he painted here.
We’ve seen other impressive artistic endeavors, some done right on the bus, like artist Avner Geller who shares a video about what it’s like to draw people on Muni, or this clip by Lev Yilmaz comparing Muni riders to those who he had seen on the Boston T.
Got your own artistic spin on our daily ride? Tag us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Our email inbox muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com is always open!
I was on the 33 on my way to Carnaval when I spotted this little guy. He was so relaxed and regal at the same time. I asked the owner if he was still a puppy and he said, “Oh no he’s a good 5 years old!” I wanted to snap a pic of his owner too since they actually looked alike with their gray (white?) hair but was too shy to ask.
Got other important news for your fellow riders? Tag us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Our email inbox muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com is always open!