From a West Portal resident: ‘Wrong Solution to Saturday’s Tragedy’

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Outbound
Photo by Flickr user Jamison Weiser

Media attention has turned to the manual controls of the Muni trains in the West Portal accident. We received the following email from rider and West Portal resident Mark:

Let me first say that my heart goes out to all of those who were injured Saturday afternoon in the Muni accident at West Portal.  That said, I feel like it is necessary to speak my mind on what happened because I feel that I have a unique opinion which I have not yet seen expressed by anyone in the media.

As of Monday, the media has finally drawn its attention to the procedure of taking trains off control of the ATC [editor’s note: Automatic Train Control] prior to entering West Portal Station.  As a long-time resident of the West Portal area, I know that this has been going on almost ever since the ATC went online; any regular Muni patron knows this as well. If there is no train currently in the station, the ATC brings the train in.  If there is already a train in the station, especially if it’s only a one-car train, as it was on Saturday, once the ATC has stopped the train outside of the station, drivers usually switch off the computer and take the train in manually so two trains can load/unload at the same time.  This is a very efficient procedure because West Portal is both a bottleneck inbound and outbound, as only one train can enter/exit at a time, so often during commute hours trains will be waiting to enter/exit West Portal Station.  By allowing the driver to bring in the train in manual mode, the driver takes full advantage of the three-car length platform and speeds things up a bit, which in my experience makes a big difference.

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Weekend Photo Diary: Deeper Concentration

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Time Is On My Side
Photo by Troy Holden

Dude, Plug 1 just won’t let up, will he? He’s all over, everywhere, all the time, taking amazing photos, dropping them into various group pools on Flickr, and even doing us the favor of sending us Muni-related news tips. We swear, he must be two or three people, or be able to bend the time/space continuum curve to be able to do as much as he does.

This photo is so cool, so real, we almost feel like we’re on the train with this guy, not our day-job desks putting together a Weekend Photo Diary.

Alas …

Weather this weekend should continue to feel not-quite-like-July-in-San-Francisco, meaning warm weather and mostly clear skies. Weather Underground sees highs in the upper-60s, while our mobile app tells us low-70s. You can interpret both to mean: GET OUT OF THE HOUSE AND HAVE SOME OUTSIDE FUN, PEOPLE!

Cheerio!

xoxo

Muni Diaries

Category: diaries, Photos

Not the good kind of nudity

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386153449_acb28b3e6f_b.jpg
Photo submitted by author

In high school, we were broke. So we had to find cheap ways to entertain ourselves, and one of those ways was to take the 38 in from the Richmond and take the now-defunct 42 Downtown Loop to the old Tower Records and the Wharf.

One fateful day, my friend Bob and I were on the 42, sitting in the second-to-back row on the driver’s side. It was fairly crowded, but not uncomfortably so. We were minding our own business, talking about Man of La Mancha or whatever the hell it is we talked about in high school.

Eventually, we noticed some kind of commotion near the front of the bus, and a handful of people getting off. We tried to see what was going on, but there were too many people. Eventually, more people got off and we saw a totally naked middle-aged woman ambling around the front of the bus.

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Muni Promises Another Crackdown on Fare-Evasion

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"Sir, You Are Not Allowed To Take Pictures On Muni Property!!"
Photo by Plug1

Muni wants your two dollars. Seriously.

The city is losing “tens of millions of dollars a year” due to fare evasion, and the agency is going to step up in collecting fare, says Transportation chief Nathaniel Ford.

Well, duh.

As SFist wisely pointed out, you can probably figure out that fare evasion is a big problem if you’ve ever been on any Muni line. However, the agency had placed a team of Muni employees and interns on buses and Metro stations to track the fare-evasion problem, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Ford told the Chronicle that 35,000 observations have been logged, but no word on the exact analysis of this data and how this supposed crackdown will proceed.

One of the hurdles in enforcing fare is that Muni operators can’t actually physically make fare evaders get off the bus, SFWeekly‘s Joe Eskenazi points out. And who wants to stay on the bus while the driver spends time arguing with riders who either won’t get off or pay up?

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Category: News

UPDATE: SFPD Nabs Alleged Muni Humper

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Close up of the handcuffs
Photo by Flickr user sirchuckles

Update: Detective Jim Serna of the SFPD is asking more victims and witnesses to speak with the police, in the hopes of building a stronger case against the suspect. Serna asks that you call the SFPD Sex Offender Unit at 415.553.9203 if you’ve been a victim or witness of the Muni Humper.

Original post: You remember him. You first told us about him in a colorful diary. He tormented your dreams and bus rides. He made the evening news. He even made it onto the stage in the form of a haiku “tribute” at Riders With Drinks.

Well, earlier this afternoon, we received word from Plug1 that the San Francisco Police Department has arrested a man who they believe to be the Muni Humper. He is being processed down at the Hall of Justice. Here are the details Plug1 told us:

back in June, i was mentioning the Muni Diaries coverage of the “Muni Humper” to a friend one day; who in return mentioned that she had not only seen this guy all the time on the N, but had been victim herself. her story was the same: the Muni Humper boards a middle/back door on a crowded N during rush hour, proceeds to hover over an unsuspecting female victim, and grinds/rubs himself on her shoulder — and when discovered, gets off at the next stop.

she saw him most recently in early July, which is when i reached out to Muni Diaries in hopes of a contact at the SFMTA or SFPD. My friend, who was noticeably weirded out by the whole situation, agreed to speak with Tim Gibson of the Muni Investigations Unit. Officer Gibson filed her original report and then referred her to Detective Jim Serna (sp?) of the SFPD. Detective Serna met personally with my friend that same day and showed her a multi-faced lineup of potential suspects. my friend was easily able to identify the suspect from the pool of photos, and agreed to file a detailed report with the SFPD. she was also able to use her Twitter feed to give exact dates and times she encountered him over the past 2 months to help police identify the suspect via the onboard surveillence on the N.

today she got a call from Detective Serna: they had caught the suspect and were processing him at 850 Bryant for sexual battery. he mentioned that the suspect was under the age of 18, and that he couldn’t comment much beyond that. i later called Officer Gibson of the SFMTA, but he was unavailable to comment on the matter.

Tip of the hat to all the victims and witnesses who helped SFPD get this sorry excuse for a transit-lover off our buses and trains.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program …

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UPDATE: SFPD Nabs Alleged Muni Humper

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Close up of the handcuffs
Photo by Flickr user sirchuckles

Update: Detective Jim Serna of the SFPD is asking more victims and witnesses to speak with the police, in the hopes of building a stronger case against the suspect. Serna asks that you call the SFPD Sex Offender Unit at 415.553.9203 if you’ve been a victim or witness of the Muni Humper.

Original post: You remember him. You first told us about him in a colorful diary. He tormented your dreams and bus rides. He made the evening news. He even made it onto the stage in the form of a haiku “tribute” at Riders With Drinks.

Well, earlier this afternoon, we received word from Plug1 that the San Francisco Police Department has arrested a man who they believe to be the Muni Humper. He is being processed down at the Hall of Justice. Here are the details Plug1 told us:

back in June, i was mentioning the Muni Diaries coverage of the “Muni Humper” to a friend one day; who in return mentioned that she had not only seen this guy all the time on the N, but had been victim herself. her story was the same: the Muni Humper boards a middle/back door on a crowded N during rush hour, proceeds to hover over an unsuspecting female victim, and grinds/rubs himself on her shoulder — and when discovered, gets off at the next stop.

she saw him most recently in early July, which is when i reached out to Muni Diaries in hopes of a contact at the SFMTA or SFPD. My friend, who was noticeably weirded out by the whole situation, agreed to speak with Tim Gibson of the Muni Investigations Unit. Officer Gibson filed her original report and then referred her to Detective Jim Serna (sp?) of the SFPD. Detective Serna met personally with my friend that same day and showed her a multi-faced lineup of potential suspects. my friend was easily able to identify the suspect from the pool of photos, and agreed to file a detailed report with the SFPD. she was also able to use her Twitter feed to give exact dates and times she encountered him over the past 2 months to help police identify the suspect via the onboard surveillence on the N.

today she got a call from Detective Serna: they had caught the suspect and were processing him at 850 Bryant for sexual battery. he mentioned that the suspect was under the age of 18, and that he couldn’t comment much beyond that. i later called Officer Gibson of the SFMTA, but he was unavailable to comment on the matter.

Tip of the hat to all the victims and witnesses who helped SFPD get this sorry excuse for a transit-lover off our buses and trains.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program …

Category: News
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