Neato: Stylin’ Golden Gate Bridge Clipper Card Now Available

It pays to wait on buying some things, as we can see right here. That’s right, everyone, this is a designer Clipper card. My friend and Muni Diaries Live photog, Kevin, just got this in the mail, and I hate him for it.

Go ahead and lament your boring blue one now.

Anyway, this special Clipper card is on sale now to commemorate the Golden Gate Bridge’s 75th anniversary year. You can get one at the Golden Gate Customer Service Center in the San Rafael Transit Center, or you can buy one online in the Golden Gate Bridge store for $25. It’s considerably more expensive than the blue ones, but we’re talking about the price of fashion (and local history), folks!

Update: The $25 actually includes $18 of pre-paid transit funds! This is a steal, everyone. Now if only it wasn’t a colossal pain in the ass to trade up.

Muni driver returns lost briefcase


Photo by MetaGrrrl

And then there are stories of Muni drivers being RAD.

Muni driver Kimberly Robinson found a briefcase left behind by a passenger on her bus in September. And lo and freaking behold, she did the right thing.

And here’s the best part: The briefcase contained a personal letter from Barack Obama to Michael Hackamack, the briefcase’s owner. Did the prez mention in this letter that he planned to mop the floor with Mitt Romney’s designer hair gel in last night’s debate?

Also, Hackamack is just a really fun name.

ABC 7 has the whole story.

Transit News: BART sister agency, sketchy BART bids, Transbay Tube walker, free Muni for kids is back


Photo by Confetti

  • BART and Shanghai Metro to Develop Sister Agency Affiliation (BART.gov)
  • Behind closed doors, BART closes, reopens bids on contested project (The Bay Citizen)
  • Editorial: Central Subway will move San Francisco in right direction (SF Examiner)
  • Man Tries to Walk to Oakland Through the Transbay Tube, Prompts BART Shutdown (SFist)
  • Supes Committee Approves Union Square Central Subway Plan (SF Appeal)
  • Free Muni youth plan could be revived with new funding from MTC (SF Examiner)

Recovering My Stolen Bike In 30 Minutes Or Less


Photo by Simon Li

Muni rider Suzanne’s bike was stolen from the 38-Geary, but just when she thought she might never see her bike again, it resurfaced less than half an hour later. Read on.

My bike got lifted from the 38 right as it pulled into the Tenderloin. I ran off and tried to chase him down, but my out-of-shapedness prevented that from being fruitful.

I am lucky, lucky, lucky that no more than half an hour later, I found my bike. Several blocks away. ON THE FRONT OF ANOTHER BUS.

I had already called 311 to file a report with the police and tweeted out my bike description. A friend tweeted back and said many thieves go to the Civic Center farmers’ market for a quick hustle. I went down there, talked to security, where they said 7th and Market is where all the stolen goods get sold.

I waited there with my brother-in-law and decide to file a report directly with Muni. As I’m saying my last sentence to Muni over the phone, another bus on another line pulls up with my damn bike on its rack.

We stop the bus, someone gets out to grab for it, security cuffs him, bus driver says “no, that’s not the guy who brought the bike on,” he gets let go and justice will be served to the actual thief another day, probably in bad karma.

But I got my boomerang bike back.

Morals of the story:

* Before anything gets stolen from anywhere, write down your bike’s serial number. Do it now. The internet will wait.

…Back? Good.

* If you think you can do so, get out and chase that m-fer down. Or at the very least, get out. If for nothing else but being in close proximity to the scene of the crime.

* But before you get out, REMEMBER THE BUS NUMBER. Not the route number, the individual bus number. I think it’s a big number above the front door. If you do just that, Muni can possibly pull video.

* I was in too much of a panic to take note of my surroundings, but knowing what time and stop (or intersection) I realized it was gone would have been very helpful.

* If it’s near downtown, go by Market and 7th immediately. That’s where they buy and sell stolen shit. I also hear the Ashby or Richmond flea markets are rife with stolen property.

* Call 311 and file a report with the police. I also called Muni directly and filed a separate report.

* Before you board, lock the bike through the wheel. It won’t prevent it from being stolen, but it would slow down a thief who won’t be able to ride away with it!

We found Suzanne’s story via our earlier post about whether you should chase a Muni bike thief. Suzanne advocates running after the thief, while other commenters disagreed. What do you think?

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