Confused Riders on the Outbound J

i took the J church TO start everything off, but it doesn't really count
Photo by Flickr user dennis

This hilarious-yet-sad anecdote came to the Muni Diaries inbox last week from Muni rider Eric G:

I got on the J at 34th and Judah. For those not in the know, the N sometimes goes outbound to Ocean Beach, then becomes an outbound J. This means it turns onto Church St instead of going into the tunnel.

Of course, this confuses a lot of people. One woman asked me if it would go to Civic Center. “Nope,” I replied.

A few minutes later, a second woman asked if the whole train was going into the tunnel, or just the first half. “This train will turn at the next stop,” I explained.

Thing is, this woman wasn’t just a regular Muni rider. She was a fare inspector. And to make matters worse, she was leading a group of fare inspectors.

I don’t blame her for not knowing. But I think this is symptomatic of Muni not training their employees nearly well enough.

Have you ever been confused about the direction your train was going? Send us all your Muni stories today!

Chaos on the 6-Parnassus

This unnerving story came to the Muni Diaries inbox from Muni rider “The Default Attorney”:

I have lived in the city now for about 8 years. Last night, going home on the 6, I witnessed one of the more disturbing incidents I have seen on Muni to date.

A woman, holding her child, gets on the somewhat already crowded bus, followed by a man who appears to be the father of the child, though he looks much younger than the woman. As they walk toward the rear of the bus, she pushes past a young woman who is standing, holding a stroller, and trying to get out of the way. The woman, still holding her child, pushes past the other mother saying rather loudly, “Get out of my way, you dumb bitch.”

Then she walks by two Muni fare inspectors who are already on the bus.

Apparently her male companion is trying to calm her down. All I can then hear is, “Fuck you, don’t tell me to calm down, I’m not fucking tripping.”

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Weekend Photo Diary: They didn’t see me

theydidntseeme
Photo by tangobaby from the Muni Photos Flickr pool

Amazing photo by tangobaby that I don’t really want to ruin with words. So I won’t.

Instead, I’ll recap a pretty busy week here on Muni Diaries. I’ll start with the post that kicked the week off for us: the July post of the month. Honors this month go to Plug1’s photo post: The Proof-of-Payment game. Later Monday, we posted a report of the M crashing into a car over the weekend, a story that was quickly eclipsed later that day in the now-famous SUV sandwich with F trains for bread. Later in the week, for whatever reason, old news about MTA’s purchasing an insurance policy came to the fore, and our weeks-old question was answered.

Also on Monday, we published the first of two posts by our favorite Muni mom, Beth W. One was about a cool new feature on txtmuni, an SMS service for bus predictions. The other was our first Muni poem, a villanelle.

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Where the #$%! is Muni’s photography policy?

The 311 On Muni's Elusive Photography Policy
Image by Plug1. Click here for a larger view.

Muni Diaries would have withered and perhaps disappeared if it weren’t for some of the amazing photographs we’ve published of life on Muni. We have a category here on the site for what we call “Photo Diaries,” little slices-of-life that take place on Muni. We like running our Weekend Photo Diaries over the weekend, when traffic on the site slows down and we give readers a chance to get away from their computers. Muni photos, in a word, are vital to the continued existence of this site.

That said, we’ve witnessed some particularly troubling events in the past concerning our (and by “our,” we mean you, us, the riding, internet-ing public) capturing and posting of photographs on-board Muni vehicles.

Well, veteran San Francisco photoblogger Plug1 has taken it upon himself to get to the bottom of Muni’s vague policy regarding this subject. Below is a chat he had on Twitter with 311, and after the jump is his take on what’s going on. It also appears on his blog, WHAT IM SEEING.com. Perhaps the vagueness won’t surprise you. But there is some hope yet …

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