Muni Meltdown -- it's back!!

It was too good to be true — a J-Church train with maws open and beckoning at the Van Ness platform. Of course it turned out to be my personal nightmare, a "medical emergency" on the train, which blocked all rail traffic out of the tunnel on all routes, for twenty-five minutes. This emergency was a heroin overdosing woman -- I can spot that look anywhere, after working at Civic Center for six years. When we did finally emerge at the Church Street Safeway, the wires were down over Market Street so it took another ten minutes to go one block. Then the train skipped my own stop for no explicable reason, and I had to walk back (and uphill, waaaah!) from 22nd. Gripe gripe gripe. Stay tuned for a later post on how urban local rail service is designed all wrong (think: no passing lanes!)

The past two days on Muni have been.... exasperating.

Yesterday there was the typical J-line trains coming in 18, 21, and 24 minutes (instead of evenly spaced) on my way to work; and then on the way back there were no J-lines at Van Ness for 18 minutes, and then a delay at Van Ness, so I took the first L-Terrible I could board (which was the fifth train to arrive at the station, due to overcrowding), and then got off at Church and walked all the way to the top of Liberty Hill and I still managed to beat that J-Church train home.

OK, so all this griping has a point. The unreliability problems on Muni would turn even the most ardent transit supporter into a single-occupant car driver. Parking at Civic Center is only $7 per day even at the daily rate, if you hunt around for the right lot. That's a lot cheaper than BART round-trip if you don't live in SF. For those of us who do live here, I know I'm not the only one that really wants to take Muni but is just bludgeoned by the awful user experience (on average, once or twice a week).

Thus, the photo accompanying this blog. This weekend, I am buying a "fixie" single-gear bicycle. I'm going to paint it pastel colors, and I am commuting up this hill with Billy Butt Power from now on. It can't hurt my physique, and I'll know exactly how long my commute takes, every day, from now on. I used to bike a few days a week when I lived in the Castro, before the bike was stolen, but it's been almost a year and it's long past time to get back in the saddle.