MD Exclusive: Q&A with Michael Smith of NextBus

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We can all thank Alameda-based NextBus for those snazzy little marquees we can’t stop staring at in the bus shelters. Not only does it provide a flashing update about where our bus might be, it provides us, at the very least, with something blinky to hold our attention while we brave the chills (hey, lay off, it gets cold here, sometimes).

Turns out the technology is available in about 60 different areas of the country, though its hometown SF is still by far the largest user base. NextBus Director of Engineering Michael Smith chatted with Muni Diaries editor Tara Ramroop about the ins and outs of the system, why it’s not always 100-percent accurate, and what’s in store in the very near future.

Muni Diaries: Tell me how long NextBus has been around.
Michael Smith: NextBus actually started in 1997, so it’s been quite awhile now. It actually started in San Francisco, by someone who rides Muni. They were just frustrated waiting for the cable cars, actually. And thought, Gee with all this technology around, shouldn’t there be a better way to deal with this? So they came up with this idea of having something that tells you when the bus is going to arrive. But his friends said, “What’s an idea if you don’t actually implement it?” So he ended up starting this company, and now we have NextBus all over San Francisco.

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Milkmobile

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In October, I wrote about how Muni dedicated one of its historic streetcars on the F-Market/Wharves line to slain San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk. Though best known for his tireless fight for equal rights in the LGBT community, he was also Muni’s best friend in Silly Hall, as he called it, advocating for better transit in San Francisco. He was the first SF supervisor to regularly use his FastPass and the first SF supervisor to take Muni to work every day from his home in the Castro.

I learned these things after stepping into a packed-to-the-gills, green-and-white F-car yesterday afternoon, not realizing it was the Harvey Milk car I wrote about a couple months prior. I took these blurry photos with my phone before it crapped out on me, and spent a lot of time staring at the old photos and reading the info in this mobile tribute. This was the same car featured in Milk, the critically acclaimed Gus Van Sant movie about Milk and his time in San Francisco politics.

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Ride Muni, Especially During the Recession

Photo: Flickr user Lola Blue

Unless you live under a rock, you know that the U.S. economy is sucking hard lately. In fact, things are so bad, we wouldn’t be surprised if you are living under a rock, or in a box, after having been evicted after having lost your job. We’re sorry about all that.

What does this have to do with public transportation?

Well, whether you own a car or not, you may have also noticed another funny thing happening lately — gas prices, once the source of so much political and social rancor, have dropped back more or less to where they were a year or two ago. Almost everywhere in the Bay Area, gasoline in less than $2 a gallon. If you do own a car, and if you’re also lucky enough to have money to keep buying stuff, you might lately have been tempted to drive, say, to downtown San Francisco, to do some shopping, see a movie, get something to eat.

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Yes, San Francisco, you are paying for Muni’s accidents

Not the worst that can happen in a Muni accident

Not the worst that can happen in a Muni accident

The San Francisco Chronicle reports today that since July 2002, Muni has paid out nearly $66 million to “people who allege injuries, fatalities, and property damage caused by the agency’s transit fleet.” Muni accidents are costing the city millions, and the number of fatalities so far this year sounds pretty awful to me:

Three pedestrians have been killed so far this year by Muni buses or streetcars. In January, a 40-year-old man in the Sunset District tripped and fell under an N-Judah streetcar, which dragged him for two blocks. In May, a 77-year-old woman was struck and killed by a 71-Haight-Noriega bus on Market Street. Last month, a 63-year-old woman died after an N-Judah streetcar struck her in a crosswalk.

Last year, there were eight fatalities, double the number from 2006. In most every case involving death or serious injury, the city is sued. Some of the cases take years to resolve.

(From Muni Accidents Cost S.F. Dearly)

Personally I have seen some pretty reckless behaviors like drivers who can’t see cyclists riding in the bike lane or an extremely fast bus careening down the hill (hello 27-Bryant, I am talking to you!). My car’s got a pretty ugly dent from the Mission bus that decided to sidle up to my passenger door a few years ago. According to the Chronicle, accidents like these (Muni hits another vehicle) account for more than half of the claims. Meanwhile, the top safety position at the agency has remained unfilled for the past four to five months, reports the Chronicle.

Have you seen any dangerous Muni behavior or accidents?

What happens when the 47 doesn’t come…

It was Friday night and I was trying to get myself from my quiet neighborhood to a hoppin’ joint in SOMA. But being that I am not the kind of girl with the cash money to cab around town (hence this blog), I waited for the 47 in our freezing cold July weather. Minutes turned into half an hour (as usual), so I decided to start walking down Van Ness, you know, to get a little exercise and see where the bus would catch up with me.

I walked and walked and of course, by now you can guess, the 47 is nowhere to be found. As I approached a red light at Van Ness and Geary, a nice silver Jetta rolls up and stops right in front of me. I noticed that the car is packed with four young men dressed in button-down shirts and fancy jeans — the typical outfit one might say is the douchebag uniform here.

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But when NextBus actually works …

Ouch! Still sore well into this afternoon after that sprint to catch the 5-Fulton last night. We left a house on Oak after discovering from NextBus that we had nine minutes. We put our shoes and jackets on, rounded up the dog, and bailed at a brisk pace.

By the time we got to Grove Street, I randomly decided to check the iPhone. 1 Minute, NextBus said. Pause. OH SHIT! I started running, while Tara and the dog did their best to trot up the hill. By the time I got to Fulton, I saw the bus, our bus, approaching. I made it to the correct side of the street just in time.

When the doors opened, panting, I asked the driver to please wait just a few seconds for my girlfriend and dog. Boy, did he looked pissed. Fine. I did the whole one-foot-on, one-foot-off trick, and waited approximately eight seconds for the girls to catch up to me.

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