Author: eugenia

Eugenia Chien has been eavesdropping on the 47, 49, or 1 lines since the mid-90's. She lives by the adage, "Anything can happen on Muni" (and also, "That's not water.")

Your Turn: Ask Muni’s Judson True

9 comments

Is there a passenger quota on buses? What is Muni doing to improve its on-time performance? How can we get cleaner buses? Why does the back door never open when I want to get off but always opens when people are cheating the fare? And what was that red puddle on the 14?

These are just some of the questions percolating in our comments section, in our Twitter feed, and on our minds as we ride the bus every day. We know there are a ton more questions out there, so we asked Judson True, SFMTA’s media relations manager, for a little one-on-one. He will be answering some of your most pressing questions in his first Muni Diaries interview. So, what do you want to know?

We will be taking your questions and some of our own, so tell us what you want to know in the comments section by next Friday, March 20, or email us at muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com.

Stay tuned!

Category: News

Passenger Quota on Muni?

4 comments

This came from Muni rider Joey:

Tuesday evening on the 45 headed from Cal Train station. Apparently the bus driver thought the 45 was some sort of shuttle bus. I was a bit late for the 5:37 p.m. bus but at 5:43 p.m. it was still there and  pretty full. I grabbed one of the handful of seats left and figured we would be moving momentarily. But we sat there for another 10 minutes, while the bus got fuller and fuller.

By the time we left people were already yelling to those in the back to “MOVE to the back of the bus.” Maybe the bus driver thought if she crammed as many people on the bus as she could that she wouldn’t have to make many stops for the rest of the route. I too hate the bus constantly stopping, but it’s public transportation not the Google shuttle, it can leave the terminal with seats available.

Anybody else encountered this? Seems like another big reason the buses aren’t on time — and as Jeff commented yesterday about the Muni Wish List, there are some definite improvements that won’t really cost us any of that stimulus money.

Category: diaries, WTF: Weirdness on Muni Tags:

What’s On Your Muni Wish List?

7 comments

MUNI
Photo by Troy Holden

If you had a few million dollars to spend on Muni, what would be on your wish list?

I can name a couple of things that we often talk about on Muni Diaries: on-time buses, safer drivers, and an improved Nextbus system. But that only scratches the surface of issues for Muni riders.

I know there is a significant segment of the transit-riding community that this blog will probably never reach because these riders have no computer access at home. They don’t have the luxury of sitting down to browse around the internet.

I was prompted this morning by the KALW radio program Your Call. Today’s show asks what should be done with the $495 million federal stimulus funding allocated for Bay Area transit agencies and road projects.

Read more

Category: News

Don’t be this guy. Ever.

3 comments

It’s really too bad that BART nixed its whole “Who’s the biggest asshole on BART” contest, or whatever it was, because this guy could be a contender.

He was on a super-crowded SFO Airport-bound train, not only hogging both halves of the disabled seat but pretending to be asleep so nobody could oust him. How do I know he was pretending? He did finally relinquish half the seat when a woman asked him to, and she didn’t have to wake him up to get the job done.

Seriously, people. If you sit down in one of these seats, and you are not disabled, elderly, pregnant, etc., it is not yours to keep. It’s your responsibility to keep an eye out for the folks who DO need these seats, and to make sure you give it up if someone needier boards the train. In fact, it’s against the law NOT to.

Looks like I’m not the only one peeved about this.

— Beth W.

Category: BART
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