You Ruined My Picture, Holmes

To Smoove B who stopped and turned around to flirt with the sly-looking girl eating a banana, before I could snap her photo, I hate you. All I needed was another couple tenths of a second.

Balboa Park: Where's NextMuni?

Balboa Park is a busy beehive of Muni activity, and yet, if you're a passenger new to the station, you probably have no idea what's going on there or what to do or where to do it. Unless of course you're taking BART, where confusion and chaos is thought of negatively. As a regular at Balboa Park, I have a few questions. Let's start with:

Why isn't there a NextMuni board anywhere at Balboa Park?

Or any kind of arrivals board?

I forget whether Balboa Park is busier than any of the downtown stations, but it is the busiest terminal that isn't underground. (It must be considerably busier than Van Ness when you combine the bus and LRV traffic.) All the downtown stations have some kind of arrivals board, whether based on the ATC (Automated Track Control) system or on NextMuni. (Remember the NextMuni displays that keep coming and going in the subway?) So why doesn't Balboa Park?

Balboa Park doesn't have anything.

What's up with that, anyway?

The Adventures of Officer Duh and the Bus Lane

Of all the places to pull someone over, why choose the westbound Balboa Park bus stop at 9:30 in the morning?

F You, Old Chinese Lady, Take the Next Bus

Would you refuse to stop a empty bus for an elderly Chinese woman trying to get on about 50 feet past the bus shelter? Apparently, if you are the driver of the 26 Valencia that left Balboa Park northbound around 8:08 this evening, you would.

Un fucking believable.

This 26 was waiting for 5-10 minutes in the northbound bus lane, completely empty. As the 26 pulled away ... slowly ... and stopped about 50 feet away from where it had been waiting, a frail, elderly Asian woman walked up to the door and waited to get on. The bus, I should mention, was still very much in service.

Unlike a normal human being who hadn't been raised by wolves, the driver kept the door shut and honked repeatedly at the old woman while the bus was still motionless. After a short wait, the bus entered traffic, then drove to the light at Geneva. The light was red so she stopped. Slowly, the woman walked up the sidewalk toward the light. After what seemed like an impossibly long time (the light was red forever) she once again approached the door of the bus. For the second time, the driver refused to let her on and drove off, leaving her standing all alone in the bus lane.

This is an old woman who can't walk at a normal pace, and who looks so thin and frail that one assumes that if caught in a breeze, she would be snapped like a twig.

And this stuck up twat won't let her on?

Me, I would fire her and ban her from ever working for Muni again. I can't imagine a scenario where she should ever work for the public, or in a service capacity, let alone public service. I can't even imagine a scenario where she should be part of the human race, but maybe that's an overreaction. Maybe.