Category: WTF: Weirdness on Muni

Bus Passenger Believes She Lives In World Where Curried Shrimp Is Odorless

Leave a comment


Photo by Flickr user Thomas Hawk

While trolling America’s most trusted news source, The Onion, this headline leaped straight into my retinas (and my nose, and my grossly accurate smell memory):

Bus Passenger Believes She Lives In World Where Curried Shrimp Is Odorless

It’s not just curried shrimp for us Muni riders, of course. It’s fried chicken with a tinge of formaldehyde on the 71. It’s your neighbor’s unbecoming new scent, “hot yoga studio but filled w hippies+Mexi food+used diapers,” on the 1. Just as easily, Muni smells like hot-dog juice, fertilizer, week-old pants, or pancakes (AKA the worst breakfast ever).

“Muni totally smells like” is one of our favorite Twitter themes, and it can often make one hell of a story. Send that stuff our way @munidiaries on Twitter or to good ol’ email at muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com

Category: Funny: Muni LOLs, Story Archive, WTF: Weirdness on Muni Tags:

Muni Operator Dares Car Driver

Leave a comment

L-Taraval MUNI
Photo by Jeff Rosen

Christopher D. Lewis sent in a tale of drive-or-dare.

I’m a regular rider of the L-Terrible. Of late I’ve become increasingly irritated by auto drivers who decide that when a Muni train stops to let passengers off and on, that they can accelerate past the train and get ahead of it, despite the fact that, of course that we all know the passengers have right of way on the street when boarding/disembarking the train. It’s gotten so bad that nowadays I refuse to get off the train by the door in the very back of the train.

A few nights ago I was on the L with one of my favourite train operators (I recognise his voice: once at Taraval and 22nd where the L stops outside the KFC/Taco Bell he reminded us that this was “The KFC stop, and it’s finger licking good”!). This operator decided to reprimand one rogue driver for whizzing past the train and almost knocking over an elderly passenger as she got off the train.

He opened all the doors then screamed over the loudspeaker system: “You jackass! You trying to kill my passengers? Why don’t you come on here and try that with me!” The car driver sped off but it put a smile on my face and on my fellow Muni passengers. I like a Muni operator who will stand up for his passengers and hopefully avoid us getting killed by some ignorant driver trying to get home in a hurry.

We like a Muni driver who looks out for us too! Got your own colorful Muni tale? We’re all about it.

Category: Story Archive, WTF: Weirdness on Muni

Rude Surprise for Tourists on Muni

9 comments

BBF6-KodakZoomMax800-20
Photo by Aaron

Renee over at KFOG had quite a surprise when she took some visitors on the F over the weekend.

It was a beautiful day in San Francisco last Saturday. I had been showing my relatives from Vienna, Austria around and we hopped on the F Line. We took the back row and there were a few Swiss kids sitting near us when a man took a seat, a little to close to me and started showing us a small bulb-like thing that looked like a Christmas ornament.

He said, “This is a crackpipe. Look.” and proceeded to light the thing and smoke the residue on the F-Line.

Lovely.

Needless to say I lost my shit with him. When I did, the man said, “Why are you even talking to me if you don’t have money to give me?”

Whoa. Sassy crack guy. How do you explain this to tourists (or kids, for that matter) on Muni? Comment away, or tell us your Muni story.

Category: Story Archive, WTF: Weirdness on Muni Tags: ,

Violated on Muni

One comment

Smelly Feet
Photo by julesreyes

Have you ever been harassed on the bus? You’d think that after the Muni Humper, people would learn. Not so much. Recently we received a report from Stella, who found some really suspicious bad behavior on the 8X-Bayshore Express.

“I was sitting on the single seats on the 8X and a man got on the bus and held the pole next to my seat…the bus makes a small turn and the man leans toward me and brushes my arm with his hand. I mean this might be understandable if it was a wide turn and if we were going pretty fast, but the bus was not. The 8X is typically a crowded bus and as a non-confrontational person, I didn’t accuse him of anything just yet. So after that I turned my head in his direction and he was staring down at me.

He was a middle age bald man with a big gut wearing a blue polo shirt. He didn’t touch me again till the next small turn. He was clearly exaggerating the impact of the turn. I was fed up with this pervert. You may think I am over-reacting to this someone touching my arm on the bus, well this is not the worst I’ve experience or seen.

I’ve talked to people about this happening and they tell me not to start anything with the guy for my own safety in case he has a weapon or might follow me home. This infuriates me that I can’t do anything about it.”

Personal spaces might be tighter on the bus but that’s no excuse if this man is brushing against Stella on purpose.

Over the weekend I was on a fairly empty 49-Van Ness and a guy decided to sit next to me and promptly “fall asleep,” resting his arm on my hips several times. At first I wasn’t completely sure that he was doing this on purpose, but after the fourth time I had enough and got up to get to the next seat. Like Stella, I found it infuriating and frustrating.

I’ve read that in other countries there are women-only passenger cars just to prevent groping. Not that groping is limited to female victims alone.

Ladies (and gents), weigh in: Has this happened to you? If so, how do you deal with it?

Category: Story Archive, WTF: Weirdness on Muni Tags: , ,

Let’s Play ‘What’s Grosser?’

6 comments


Image by Flickr user muilak

Rachael posted an interesting question on the Muni Diaries Facebook Page yesterday:

Maybe I’m weird about germs but to me walking around barefoot is no more/less gross than touching everything on the bus then sitting down to eat a sandwich. Why do people eat on Muni?

Which led me to wonder which was actually grosser. I haven’t decided yet, but I’ve probably spent too much time thinking about it already.

The floor is just plain grody. I’ve let bare legs and bare hands touch seats and rails before even thinking about putting a bag on the floor. I think we can agree that the chicken and formaldehyde combo platter is an appetite-killer for all involved. But Muni riders snack on food that isn’t stuck to the window all the time, and it doesn’t always bother me. That said, we use our bare hands to eat, sometimes before washing our hands when we’re late to dinner and about to eat a limb for sustenance. OK, maybe by we, I mean me.

But, which is worse? Barefoot riding or eating while riding?

Category: Funny: Muni LOLs, Story Archive, WTF: Weirdness on Muni Tags: ,

Travels with Shady on the 8BX

25 comments


Photo by Rubin 110

The F-Market/Wharves operators are very quick to remind us all, tourist and local, that packed trains may mean picked pockets. Lest we forget, some tourists take the 8BX-Bayshore “B” Express also, and folks definitely take advantage of them.

There’s this guy stationed at the North Point and Stockton stop. He has maps and acts as a slightly pushy, official tour guide. He’s exceedingly polite — and accurate — when pointing people wherever they want to go. Then, almost like it didn’t happen, you see dollars exchanged for transfers. He’ll quietly explain that they’re good until the time listed — also accurate — and they stare interestedly at this slip of paper. Some are skeptical and some just pay, no questions asked, like they knew he was there with the “discount” tickets. One guy asked tons of questions, which tipped me off to his dealings in the first place.

But one woman who bought a $1 transfer was obviously a local. She knew exactly what she was doing, and I’m surprised I don’t see it more: paying $1 for a still-active transfer instead of $2 honest fare.

And he did it again at the same time the next day.

I don’t know where he gets the transfers. I figured maybe he stole them from a parked bus in the Kirkland Yard, mere steps away from this stop. Maybe he has a buddy who just hands them to him like it ain’t no thang.

It is, though. It’s illegal to sell transfers, so Muni at least kind of agrees: buying and selling transfers only cheats the paying customers. It’s also kind of a shitty thing to do.

Category: Story Archive, WTF: Weirdness on Muni Tags: , ,
1 … 44 45 46 47 48 … 64