Look how great the Muni service was back then!

This video was allegedly filmed a week or so before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The filmmakers mounted a camera on a San Francisco streetcar and went all the way down Market Street to the Ferry Building. Aside from the obviously amazing things in this footage, I was also struck by how frequently the streetcars ran. They're almost bumper to bumper! Anyone who's ever stood i the wind on Market Street waiting for the F car knows that things have changed a lot since then....

MuniMe

It's been awhile since I've had to take the Muni Metro system during rush hour, but today I needed to go downtown at the height of the commuter hours. And with the increased use of the transit system over these past few months -- that is, with people finally figuring out that public transit is a saner option than driving a gas-guzzling automobile around the bay area -- I was hoping that Muni was stepping up to accommodate the growing masses. You know, decreasing the time between trams, increasing the number of cars attached together during heavy commute hours...making the system more tolerable, rather than a chiropractor's dream come true. I'm a huge advocate of using public transit, having used it most of my life--I'm practically a cheerleader for trains, trams, and buses. And I want San Francisco to rise to a higher standard. (Think: Zürich.)

Here's a photo of what I was greeted with today when I entered the metro station....mind you, the tram cars were already full with passengers on arrival...let's hope there was a good reason for this.

Words for dinner...I hope

I am looking forward to -- hopefully! -- eating my words. I've posted two entries in my blog about the transit initiatives that were on the ballot in San Francisco: one to give more money to public transit, and one that would suck the money out of private transit and give it to private developers to create more parking for cars.

I thought it would win, that San Francisco might repeat the debacle of the long-departed, but very well-loved Key Route system in the Bay Area, which was bought by GM in the 1950s and destroyed.

But so far, so good. Early reports say that the transit system is winning and the parking measure is losing. However, I've also heard that -- for reasons I'm unclear about -- it will take a whole month for San Francisco to count the ballots. That's plenty of time for some ballot boxes to disappear into yesterday's oil spill in the Bay...but I hope not!

yakety yak

I'm certainly not the first person to complain about this, but I really can't stand it when people talk incessantly on their cell phones while riding on public transit.

The violators fall into two categories: the first type is the passenger who has nothing to say but never stops talking. Usually this person boards the train with lips already flapping and one shoulder hunched to hold the cell phone tight against the ear. This breed of cell phoners NEVER gets off the phone for the entire ride, even if it means calling every single person in their address book. This person needs a babysitter. Luckily, these motor mouths usually disembark before the train reaches the city, probably to go to a shopping mall.

Type 2 is basically "Type A." This cell phoner turns the entire train car into his or her office space. The work day begins on the train and all of us get to share in this person's business matters. The device is typically a Blackberry, but beginners will use a Razr. Forget confidentiality: we all know by the end of the call exactly what you think of your clients!

One of my friends in Switzerland told me that the Swiss solved this problem by creating a train car just for cell phone yakkers. These train cars must resemble the glass-boxed "smoking room" at airports, where people pace back and forth in a smoke-clogged room with cigarettes in their hands. Maybe the cell phone IS the new cigarette.

Don't most mobile-phone service providers allow text messaging now? Use 'em.

urban mobility

I have a car. But I live much of my life without using it. In fact, I only drive it to haul things or to go someplace that's impossible or unwise to reach with public transportation.

I don't think this is so strange -- I live in a city, and I grew up in New York. It seems completely normal to live my life, for the most part, without a car.

However, I live in the USA, and this is considered bizarre. Granted, there are many places where you absolutely MUST have a car and without one, you'd perish. But I don't want to live in those places. I can't stand driving in dense traffic, or looking endlessly for parking spaces that aren't in tow-away zones, or trying to get out of a parking lot without being hit by a bigger car. In general, I often feel like I'm in a horrible video game when I drive. It's not fun.

I won't get into a rant here about using non-renewable resources. I don't have to...you already know.

What I don't understand is the increasing number of people moving into my city with huge cars -- people who live next to a transit hub, but drive everywhere anyway. People who would rather drive four blocks than walk. People who drive to urban events with tens of thousands of other people, with no hope of parking.

I think that maybe it's because cars are basically mobile homes --once inside the car, people feel at "home" -- no matter where the car might take them. So much at home, in fact, that they often have no place to seat their passengers because of the toys, clothes, baby carriers, food, and entertainment items strewn everywhere. They feel "safe" in their car-home in unsafe times.

I'm of the belief system that the more people you have walking on the street, the safer the streets are to walk on. (With the exception of a few horrible mob scenes, that is.) So how do you get people out of their mobile homes and onto the sidewalks again?