News – Page 185 – Muni Diaries

Weekend Photos: This Side of the Tracks

March 11, 2011 eugenia 2 comments

Wow. A tsunami warning in San Francisco, really? I woke up to thoughts of how to evacuate my apartment in under three minutes (not looking so good right now).

Hey, we have a Facebook page where you can keep up with all the happenings on Muni Diaries. Won’t you like us on Facebook?

In Muni news this week:

Muni reroutes due to tsunami warning (our news roundup)
Muni operators calling for expansion of safety regulation to include buses (SF Examiner)
Muni operators sue the city, transportation chief (City Insider)
Supervisor Scott Wiener calls on Muni to get tough on workers (SF Examiner)
Eleven citizens first to be empowered with oversight of BART Police (BART.gov)
Church and Duboce Project to Revamp Major Transit and Bike Corridor (Streetsblog SF)
Construction Schedule Mar. 7 – Mar. 25 (Central Subway Blog)
BART gets better budget news (SFGate)
Large Sculpture Approved For New Transbay Transit Center (SFAppeal)
Muni “M” Pass on Clipper Card ONLY Starting April 1, 2011 (Akit’s Complaint Department)

Enjoy these photos and have a safe weekend!

Photo by beakatude

Photo by hep

Photo by Jennifer_Bakos

Photo by Troy Holden

Category: News

Muni Reroutes Due To Tsunami Warning

March 11, 2011 eugenia 3 comments

Photo by Troy Holden

Due to the tsunami warning and closure of Great Highway, SFMTA rerouted the 18-46th Avenue and the 23-Monterey off of Great Highway at 8 a.m.. ~~SFAppeal reports that the N-Judah and the L Taraval are also being rerouted at Sunset Blvd. (a shuttle will take you between Ocean Beach and Sunset).~~ BART is running as usual. No word yet on when the 18 and the 23 will be back to their normal routes. Meanwhile, officials say you should stay off the beach because waves can last for hours, reports SFGate. On Twitter, @Emergency_In_SF reminds people to stay away from the beach and that the “best view will be live on TV.”

The SFAppeal has a live cam of Ocean Beach, which so far looks rather uneventful. Fingers crossed.

The tsunami warning came after the 8.9 earthquake that shook Japan yesterday. More coverage of the San Francisco tsunami warning:

Video: People flock to Ocean Beach San Francisco to watch tsunami (SF Examiner)
Tsunami warning closes local beaches, Great Highway (SFGate)
SF Tsunamiwatch: Video From Ocean Beach, BART Still Running, Muni Rerouted Away From Coast (SFAppeal)
Hour-by-hour watch on SFist on local tsunami warning (SFist)
Tsunami Warning in San Francisco; Beaches Closed (SF Weekly, which also updates that Santa Cruz has damaged boats)
California nuclear plants shut down as tsunami precaution (Reuters, which also updates that precautions are routine)

Category: News Tags: 18-46th Avenue, 23-Monterey, L-Taraval, N-Judah

Bus Bridges Running During Muni Delays (updates)

March 8, 2011 eugenia 2 comments

Photo by David Lytle

Update (3:22 p.m.): SF Weekly says that SFMTA promises a fail-free evening commute today. We’ll just see about that, won’t we?

Update (2:26 p.m.): SF Appeal reports that, according to SFMTA, this morning’s mess was the result of damaged cables. The problem was fixed at 10 a.m. this morning, according to SFMTA spokesperson Paul Rose. Read the rest of the story at SF Appeal.

Original post:The exact cause of this morning’s delays at the Embarcadero Station is still unclear, and it looks like we won’t find out for another few hours. The delays started early this morning, affecting inbound and outbound trains that feed under Market Street.

KRON 4 reports:

Muni spokesman Paul Rose says once the morning commute is over, repair crews will go to the Embarcadero Station and assess what’s going wrong. Rose wouldn’t estimate the length of the delays but says bus bridges are also running along Market Street to cope with the extra number of passengers.

SFMTA says that a mechanical issue might be causing the problem. Deja vu much? SF Appeal reports:

According to SF MTA spokesperson Paul Rose, “we’re still moving, we’re just going slowly” at the Embarcadero station, where he says mechanical issues are, yet again, delaying service.

Riders are understandably frustrated, especially loudly on Twitter, notes the SF Examiner. You can, of course, request a late note from the station agent like Kath did this morning. Genius, Kath!

We’ll keep you updated here on the status of the delay.

Category: News

Have Muni write a doctor’s note when Munifail occurs

March 8, 2011 jeff 2 comments

SF Appeal and everyone in San Francisco with a Twitter account reports on nearly systemwide service issues this morning.

And so Muni rider Kath decided to take matters into her own hands, so to speak:

Yes, I was late today — very late — despite leaving early in hopes of having time to grab a cup of coffee before work. And yes, it was Muni’s fault… it took 20 minutes to get from Castro to Van Ness (via metro tunnel), for starters. So, yes, I DID make them write me a late note when I finally got to Embarcadero station. I plan on doing this every time they make me late from now on. And I encourage you to do the same!

— Kath

PS: of course, the delay really started at 7.45A this morning, but for this first-time late note I’ll take what I can get.

Go, Kath!

Category: Funny: Muni LOLs, News, Story Archive

BART Seats: Officially Gross

March 6, 2011 eugenia 6 comments

Photo by Jared Zimmerman

Muni seats: officially less gross. Well, at least on the molecular level.

Muni seats are cleaner than the cloth seats on BART, which carry bacteria resistant to antibiotics, the Bay Citizen reported yesterday. Citing laboratory tests of swabs from BART seats done by an SF State biologist, the Bay Citizen says the results showed several antibiotic-resistant bacteria strains living in the infamous blue cushioned seats.

In two separate tests, [SF State biology lab supervisor Darleen] Franklin identified characteristics of the MRSA bacteria growing in the seat. The first test confirmed the presence of staphylococcus aureus, the skin-borne bacteria. A second confirmed that the bacteria, like MRSA, was resistant to the antibiotics methicillin and penicillin. But a third test intended to isolate the MRSA bacteria was negative.

MRSA is known as the “superbug” because it is resistant to antibiotics. It infects people through open wounds, attacking the immune system; 19,000 deaths each year are related to MRSA infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

You might have read a couple of gross stories on Muni here (hell, we even have our own crowd-sourced dictionary of Muni aromas), but according to the Bay Citizen’s report, Muni seats are actually cleaner.

Franklin’s analysis also revealed that Muni, which uses acrylic plastic seats, appears to be more sanitary.

She tested a seat on the No. 28 bus, a route frequented by college students traveling from San Francisco State to Daly City. Two benign bacteria colonies were found. Unlike the BART seat analysis, Franklin’s test of the Muni seat after cleaning it with an alcohol wipe detected no bacteria.

Read the entire Bay Citizen article (“BART Seats: Where Bacteria Blossom“).

BART is asking what kind of seats riders want when the system upgrades its trains in the next few years. What do you propose?

Category: BART, News

Weekend Photos: On the Floor of Muni

March 4, 2011 jeff Leave a comment

Photo by CarbonNYC

As much as we want your eyeballs on this post, seriously get away from the computer right freaking now. It is amazingly springlike in San Francisco, and should be all weekend, including possible showers on Sunday.

Still with us? Okay. Earlier this week on Muni Time Capsule, Eric Fischer’s photo of an old streetcar dressed in cable car clothes, and on a street that was never part of a streetcar route, had some of us scratching our heads and admiring at the same time. Perplexing stuff.

Did you know that Muni Diaries has a Facebook page? If not, check it out and never be without your daily dose of Muni this and Muni that. We’re also on Twitter. Speaking of, this week saw the debut of a new MD feature: Meanwhile, on @munidiaries, where we’ll be compiling the best tweets and twitpics of the week every Thursday.

SF Appeal has details on this weekend’s Muni traffic advisory.

Here’s the week’s Muni news:

Muni drivers sleeping, speeding, snacking while operating trains, state agency says (SF Examiner)
We’re transportation innovators (SFGate)
Muni objects to state criticism of rail lines (SFGate)
Tab for Muni collision in West Portal Tunnel nears $6 million (SFGate’s City Insider)
Washington airport group makes no decision on hiring Nathaniel Ford (SF Examiner)
SFMTA Fires At Least Seven Employees for Ticket Fixing, Investigation Ongoing (SF Appeal)
SFMTA Board Votes to Give 12,000 Free Muni Passes to Low-Income Students (BCN via SF Appeal)
SFMTA: Local Hire Will Kill Central Subway Project (SF Appeal)
Muni N-Judah train strikes car that ran stop sign (SF Examiner || SF Appeal)
CPUC leaders absent from Muni’s hearing on regulation infractions (SF Examiner)
Muni operators accuse agency of ignoring safety protocols (SF Examiner)
Cameron Beach and Jerry Lee’s Future as SFMTA Board Members Uncertain (Streetsblog SF)