One block up
Furious with the last time I had to ride on the 38, I decided to write an email complaint to Muni. I doubt it will be read, but my hope is that it’ll add to a complaint pile somewhere that will add more buses to the route.
The tipping point was last night after my late night workout. From Montgomery street, I boarded a mostly empty 38 bus. I got the infamous driver 556, who checks every pass, counts every coin, and makes sure everyone gets in the front. About Powell the bus got packed, but since I got in so early I was able to sit way in the back.
When my stop on Divisadero came around, I did my normal squeezing to rear door to make my escape. The green light didn’t come on, so I figured what ever magical Muni button hadn’t been pressed. It was then that the bus driver annouced, “You have to exit through the front door this stop.”
Why? I had to push through a bunch of very unhappy people all the way through the front. It isn’t like that stop at 10pm is very dangerous or busy.
The next day, I decided to walk one block up and take the 2 home. It is a little out of my way, but it was hardly packed. I climbed on to an electric bus where the driver was very cheery and greeted everyone on the bus. For the entire trip he made random jokes and tried to start random conversation.
“So, who here is from San Francisco?”
The few people on the bus looked confused, frightened, and weirded out, so I piped up.
“San Francisco!” I exclaimed.
A little surprised someone took the bait, he answered, “I hear it is nice this time of the year. You know where I was last week it was raining all the time. Do you know where that was?”
“Uhh.. Seattle?” I answered.
“San Francisco!”
He then looked at his watch and pointed to it.
“Welcome to the new Muni! We’re on time now!”
I couldn’t help myself from having a laughing attack where I sat. It was like an alternative Muni-land. He pulled up to a stop where an attractive young lady was obviously waiting for another bus. He then tried to coax her on to his line.
“So, where are you headed young lady? Oh, you don’t want to go there, I’m driving up to Leavenworth, you should get on!”
Later, he ran a red light, “I’m practicing stopping. You know where practice gets you? Carnage Hall!”
I don’t know if I’d want all my Muni drivers to be that conversive and flamboyant, but it made my day.