6 comments

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  papa

  1 year ago

  Hahahaha...I enjoyed these!
  
  Though it seems that your list has as much to do with bad *rider* behavior as it does with Muni operational problems. I'm not arguing that either issue isn't painful...I just find it funny, b/c even if Muni was functioning smoothly you'd still have to deal with some of the idiotic riders.
  
  I was on the F this morning and rang for a stop and the streetcar stopped at a surface platform such that the back door was blocked by the handicapped ramp. Before I could run to the front to exit, the dude started up again. With Muni you need to roll with the punches...constantly...
  
  I do hate it when the area around the door on Muni Metro train is totally sardine packed while the interior of the train is relatively empty. Kinda cracks me up. It's like we are collectively so lame that we'd rather just clump up rather than look up and spill into the less crowded parts of the train. Too funny.
  
  Fwiw, I get pissed driving too, so it ends up being a wash.
  
  But when I need a good laugh, the Muni Haiku page is always there:
  http://www.munihaiku.com/wp/
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  webomatica

  1 year ago

  Ah yeah I guess I'll do a future rant about how ridiculous the system is as a whole - ever since the 15 was eliminated the 9AX is freaking unbearable - but also unintentionally hilarious as you get the tourists from Iowa trapped aboard a bus going through the thick of Chinatown that are shocked at how many people you really can fit on a bus when nobody cares about physical comfort.
  
  (actually, one of the haikus on your recommended muni page captures the sentiment perfectly):
  
  they took you from me
  15 3rd, now i suffer
  stink fish spit pushed pigs
  
  My personal MUNI bus operational gripe is when the freaking long things that attach to the overhead power lines comes undone and the bus driver has to stop in the middle of an intersection, get off the bus, and reattach the long things on his own - what kind of pitiful technology is this?
  
  Sometimes I take the light rail that goes along the Embarcadero which has its own problems - from the start - stop - start of the "retro" European cars that unfortunately has a way of hurling the clueless tourists into the wooden benches, to the battle on the N Judah (or Third Street Line) with the crazed Giants Fans, packing the cars to where people are standing on the platforms watching the MUNI cars zoom right on by without even stopping... it can be really tiring.
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  Ross McKillop

  1 year ago

  Awesome. As a non-driver I'm more than familiar w/ MUNI, TTC (Toronto), SEPTA (Philly) and TransLink (Vancouver).
  
  My commute in SF was the worst - cable-car to MUNI, MUNI to Caltrain, Caltrain to Redwood City, shuttle to work. Total time: 2:00hrs. MUNI was the worst part. Packed and never on time trains. Those stupid cable cars were OK in the morning (no tourists) but such a pain when going home (full of tourists, which lets face it is probably the only reason they still exist).
  
  Philly wins for "grossest" overall transit. The seats were all stained (with I don't want to know what), the stations all smelled of urine and were COVERED in dirt. Toronto wins for cleanest and best overall. Vancouver is by far the most polite (when people get off the bus they yell "Thank you!" to the driver at the front - which is a habit I've thoroughly enjoyed picking up, and never seen in any other city).
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  webomatica

  1 year ago

  Ross - your past commute sounds like it was the reverse of what mine is - I currently do the CalTrain and then MUNI to get to work up in the city. I have much less complaints about CalTrain but there are a few even there.
  
  Philly sounds pretty nasty but humorous - I'll have to ask some coworkers that used to live in Philly what their experiences were. Canada is sounding like a better and better place to visit by the day :)
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  papa

  1 year ago

  Btw Jase, in case you were wondering about the buses with the overhead electrical wires (aka "trollybuses"), there's a wikipedia article about them:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolleybus
  
  Article elaborates on the pros and cons. Obviously the disconnecting issue is a con. But on the benefits side of the equation is their performance on hills and low pollution (hence the prevalence of them in SF).
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  Dan

  1 year ago

  This is observant and funny. And here I was thinking that riding the DC metro was a pain in the ass, I guess I can't complain that much.
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