Your place to share stories on and off the bus.
This is my little friend, Pedro, perhaps the most inspiring reason yet to take Muni. You know how everyone says, “Fuck Muni forever, I’m driving?” He says the opposite. Though no fan of a moving car (even when it’s headed to the dog park), he loves him some Metro.
I, for one, am motivated to put car keys away for a while. If he can do it, we can do it.
The tiniest Spider-Man is scaling the impossible climb that is every Muni ride. Photo via @andrio9000 on Instagram.
This isn’t the first time we’ve found little friends alongside us in transit. In January, someone spotted this pipe-cleaning stowaway on Muni. We named him Stromboli.
Are balloon animals on Muni so two years ago? I think there’s room for everyone, personally.
It’s no secret that everyone loves those colorful paper Fast Passes. It’s been a few years since they were taken out of regular use, but we found these great Muni posters by designer Brian Toth, who honors his favorite San Francisco neighborhoods in Fast Pass format.
We caught up with Brian to ask him why he created these posters.
The reason I created these was that, like most designers, I’m a huge fan of those old Muni passes. They are iconic, something I will always associate with San Francisco. I currently have a set of Muni Fast Passes from January, 2006, to January, 2011 hanging from my door in my apartment. I thought it would be interesting to use that familiar structure in the passes as a way to highlight some of the many neighborhoods in San Francisco
One of my favorite Muni lines has to be the 22-Fillmore. From Dogpatch to the Marina and all that’s in between, this line is one of my favorites. If you take the time to ride it from one end to the other you really get to see the many aspects of the city we all live in.
The last time the Adult paper Fast Passes were in use was in 2011. Take a look at all the different incarnations that the paper Fast Passes through the years!
You can get one of Brian’s prints at Society6.
Artists Diane Ramirez and Stephen Kral created a series of drawings and paintings about public transit, like the image above. The artists also produced a “collaborative zine” called Tales from the Tenderloin, which, in their own words, “documents the freaky, fun and grimy stories of life in the Tenderloin as told and drawn by those who have walked its streets, breathed its air, and came out the other side with a tale to tell.”
And can you teach us all to be at least half as awesome as you are, dear sir?
Via Muni rider Karen: “I couldn’t even approach the glory of the gold top hat guy on the 5-Fulton.”
Image via Meanwhile, in San Francisco
We met artist Wendy MacNaughton back in 2010 when she illustrated a series of gorgeous, whimsical, and very San Francisco drawings done on Muni and BART. Since then, she’s done loads of amazing work, including Pen and Ink: Tattoos and the Stories Behind Them, written with Muni Diaries Live alum Isaac Fitzgerald (watch his story here). Her latest book, Meanwhile, in San Francisco, is an ode to the city we all know and love. Featured prominently at the beginning of the book, of course, is the personal story of a Muni driver.
The illustrations shows a day in the life of a Muni operator in his own words. From Wendy: “The driver is my neighbor, Edmundo. he lives just up the street from me – so I asked if I could join him at work. I went at the crack of dawn with him one day – before 5 a.m., I think it was.”
We asked Wendy in an earlier story about why she draws on public transit: Read more