Your place to share stories on and off the bus.
How much do you like trains? This poster by Peter Dovak helps you count the ways. I spy BART, Caltrain, Muni, VTA, and ACE so far. Find it on Society6.
If you’re particular in your Muni line allegiance, here’s a 38-Geary landmark poster you might be into. I love these Fast Pass neighborhood posters, too.
h/t: @TelstarLogistic and @justanyrb
Derek from 4fifeen Clothing is a San Francisco native who makes great tees and hats showing some serious city pride. It turns out he had even more reason to claim SF street cred: His dad was a Muni driver and has the operator’s manual to prove it!
My pops’ old #sfmuni #amgeneral operator’s manual. #woodsdivision Born and raised in #sf.
Here’s what Muni’s driver recruitment looks like today, and the Muni operator’s handbook, all 155 pages on the mechanics of being a Muni driver. A fascinating read for any transit geek, really.
More insider driver tales:
What do Muni drivers really think of you?
Muni driver reveals behind the scenes stories
An oldie but a goodie: Muni driver decorates bus for Halloween
Photo via @4fifteen.
Love these Muni moments? Come to Muni Diaries Live on Apr. 16 at the Elbo Room to hear our best stories live! Tickets.
Walking up Nob or Russian Hill is a serious booty burner. But operating (or gripping) the historic cable cars dutifully traveling to their summits ain’t exactly a lazy Sunday, either.
Take it from SFMTA: “Demanding and unforgiving, gripping a cable car requires extraordinary skills: arm, hand and upper body strength, mental and physical coordination, confidence and determination.”
As such, therefore, and obviously: A woman, the third ever in cable car history, has stepped into the role.
#zing
Driving a bus is hard work. This evening, a local artist is honoring Muni drivers in a free art show called “Yellow Line.” Artist Kurt M. Schwartzmann’s exhibit features a series of 64 drawings “in honor of all the hard working and under-appreciated San Francisco Muni operators.”
The exhibit and reception will take place at City College Ocean Campus, Queer Resource Center, Bungalow 201 tonight from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Facebook event page
Have you ever wished that you said exactly what’s on your mind at work?
During last week’s BART meltdown, the man running the BART Twitter account gained national attention by tweeting some honest truth bombs about transit. This week on Popular Mechanics, Taylor Huckaby, the spokesperson tweeting that day (who has our standing invitation to tater tots and whiskey at Bender’s forever), wrote about what was going through his mind that night:
Somewhere along the way, I replied to a frustrated passenger with what I thought was a fairly standard response, one we had used elsewhere: BART was built to transport far fewer people, much of the system has reached the end of its useful life, and this is the reality we face.
The response went viral, as sites like Gizmodo marveled at a government agency being frank and honest on social media and posted several of my replies to angry riders. Now, I’m hoping this episode sparks a much-needed national conversation about the stark reality of America’s deteriorated railways, roads, bridges, airports, sewer systems and electrical grid. This shouldn’t be a blame game. This is about facing deficiencies, having a frank conversation about them, and making our government better. There’s no purer distillation of democracy’s mission than this, but even so, it has proven tremendously difficult to articulate how to fix mass transit in America.
There’s a right way and a wrong way to run the social media account of a public entity. During this week’s BART disruptions, the agency’s Twitter account engaged in so much “the right way of doing things.” Gizmodo has the story:
“Last night, the person in charge of the official San Francisco BART Twitter account lost it. In 57 tweets, the account espoused truth and honesty, and pretty much admitted what everyone in the Bay Area already knows: the crumbling institution kinda sucks.”
We can sympathize! Here at @munidiaries and @bartdiaries, we probably see almost as many hateful public transit tweets as the poor soul who ran BART’s Twitter feed this week. Fortunately our only job here, as four riders blogging away in our living rooms, is to pick out the funniest rants and present them to you! The media found the guy who was running BART’s Twitter feed that night: Taylor Huckaby of @iwriterealgood.
More from Wire.com:
Thankfully for Huckaby, BART’s higher-ups approved of the rogue policy change. His boss commended him for “single-handedly” turning the tide of “pretty much abuse” into an actual conversation. “It was exciting to be able to start a conversation about infrastructure,” Huckaby says, “because infrastructure is just not sexy—unless something is broken or brand new.”
Even The New York Times is on it. They talked to Huckaby about his approach to social media for BART:
His philosophical approach to social media runs counter to that of most government agencies, which he said use Twitter as a bullhorn.
“With the political climate, there’s a lot of focus right now on America’s crumbling infrastructure — why are our tax dollars not getting us anything; where’s our return on investment?” he said, explaining why he thought it was important for government to be responsive online.
Here are a few of the tweets from that evening:
@lisabari To illustrate this point – the number of people who exit at 19th street in Oakland has doubled in less than a decade.
— SFBART (@SFBART) March 17, 2016
Like @iamjohnoliver has said on @lastweektonight, infrastructure isn't sexy – but without it, no one moves. #ThisIsOurReality
— SFBART (@SFBART) March 17, 2016
@shakatron BART was built to transport far fewer people, and much of our system has reached the end of its useful life. This is our reality.
— SFBART (@SFBART) March 17, 2016
@tquad64 Planners in 1996 had no way of predicting the tech boom – track redundancy, new tunnels & transbay tubes are decades-long projects.
— SFBART (@SFBART) March 17, 2016
People in other parts of the U.S. took notice and applauded BART’s openness and honesty through the crisis:
I actually wish more government agencies were this honest about their problems and the tradeoffs of solutions: https://t.co/qtcAGkzBGI
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) March 17, 2016
This one, from the Metro LA account, was especially awesome in its GIF-y solidarity:
@SFBART pic.twitter.com/9xSwytfty4
— Metro (@metrolosangeles) March 17, 2016
Yes, we indeed need more openness and candid communication from public transit agencies. Hear that, @SFMTA_Muni?