Muni Street Cars and BART Subway

7/1/2001 English German

Edition # 31
San Francisco, 7-1-2001

Car traffic in Silicon Valley The Silicon Valley Railway The Streets of San Francisco Radar Traps Parking in the City Public Transportation Dogs, Dogs, Dogs! Muni Street Cars and BART Subway News from the President

Muni Street Cars and BART Subway

Angelika Michael's detailed report on transportation policy already revealed quite a few secrets to you. I've always used public transit to conduct my social studies. If you really want to get to know San Francisco, just hop on a bus or street car. Many adventures await you. I'm not talking about the world-famous Cable Car, because locals in San Francisco generally don't use the Cable Car to get from point A to point B. No, even the "locals" ride the Cable Car mostly for fun, often with visitors in tow. Take the bus, tram, or BART if you want to understand what makes this city tick. One of my favorite bus lines is number 30 "Stockton," because this bus goes right through Chinatown, and you can feel firsthand that San Francisco has the largest Chinese population outside of China. But be careful! The bus is always packed, so it's not for those who suffer from claustrophobia. Going from Asia to South America? That's just a stone's throw in San Francisco. Hop on bus No. 14 "Mission," which takes you past taquerias and a colorful mix of shops through the Latin American neighborhood (called "The Mission"). You'll encounter colorful characters on bus number 48, which departs almost right outside our door. The reason for the extravagance is rather sad, as the bus line passes by the "General Hospital," which has a crisis intervention center for psychiatric patients. Patients are treated at this center even if they are uninsured.

Figure [1]: The 48-er experience bus in San Francisco passes by our home.

I am also often a passenger on the "J" streetcar, as it takes me from downtown to Church Street, where we live. It always gets interesting when school is out and the students from "Mission High" board at Dolores Park. The reputation of this high school leaves much to be desired, and I often feel sorry for the teachers when I observe the students' behavior, even though I'm not particularly sensitive about such things due to my profession.

Recently, I was quite surprised when suddenly some girls from this school, about 13 or 14 years old, entered the streetcar with life-sized baby dolls in their arms. Since Americans are known for their love of conversation, I didn't have to wait long before someone asked the girls what the dolls were all about. It turned out that the "baby doll project" is a type of sex education. The girls (I didn't see any boys armed with baby dolls) take the dolls home over the weekend. The homework is to take care of the "baby." To make the experience more realistic, the dolls have a computer chip installed that makes them cry at irregular intervals for extended periods (including at night, of course). Thanks to technology, the "baby" also starts crying if it is held awkwardly, for example, with its head down. However, you can't feed the doll, and the diapers stay clean. The girls keep a diary over the weekend, writing down how they feel when their baby cries. One of the passengers then asked a pedagogically valuable question to one of the girls about what they were supposed to learn from this. She received the answer: "To take on more responsibility!" WRONG, I thought! Ideally, the crying of the babies is supposed to annoy the girls so much that they resist sex for a long time and don't get pregnant. I immediately felt that the baby project is not the right way to reduce the high number of teenage pregnancies in the USA. This approach is like putting the cart before the horse, which is known not to work.

And now a little story that will make the fare inspectors of the Munich public transport services perk up. We've mentioned before that Muni (you remember, that's the public transport service in San Francisco) is not exactly super reliable. For quite some time now, everyone who is anyone has been trying to improve the Muni. And I admit that it's not as bad as it once was. There still isn't a proper schedule for buses and streetcars, but the waiting times have shortened somewhat. As part of these improvements, about six months ago, it was introduced that passengers with a valid ticket are allowed to board at any door of the bus or streetcar. A valid ticket is considered to be a monthly pass or the so-called "transfer," which you receive as proof when paying your fare, to be possibly used for connecting rides.

Until recently, you could only board at the driver door, where you paid or showed your monthly pass, or "transfer." Boarding and deboarding took forever with this procedure. Since humans are known to be creatures of habit, the new boarding method had been in the works for a long time. There were brochures, loudspeaker announcements, and signs, because passengers had to be drilled to always carry their "transfer" with them from now on. Inspectors are also needed from now on, because someone might just jump on the bus or streetcar without a ticket. The concept of inspectors is relatively unusual in American cities with public transport systems.

Usually, a turnstile or a person prevents you from fare evasion when boarding. Inspectors seem suspicious to Americans, as they are authorized to restrict individual freedom and impose fines. Naturally, the new inspectors are wearing uniforms so they can be easily recognized. Sneaking onto the bus in plain clothes would be considered an imposition by American passengers.

I've already been checked twice. The last time, it so happened that two passengers couldn't show a ticket. I watched with interest to see what would happen next. The passengers simply jumped up, ran to the front and paid with the driver. The inspector politely remarked that they should please pay when boarding next time to avoid misunderstandings and so he wouldn't have to impose a fine. Wow! I remember the story from Munich with an American tourist who took the S-Bahn from the airport to the city and forgot to validate his ticket. He was checked and had to pay the fine, even though it was obviously a mistake. Sometimes San Francisco really shows its extremely friendly side.