www.njudahchronicles.com/2007/06/reader_mail_blocking_the_n_jud.html
MUNI Maladies Roundup in Today's <I>Chronicle</I>: Some Extended Thoughts The N-Judah Chronicles Urban life and humorous observations, all from the vantage point of San Francisco Muni's N-Judah line.
Main Reader Mail: Blocking the N Judah on a Saturday Night For Only $55! Loyal Reader "MateoSF" was kind enough to send us the YouTube URL for a fit of insantiy on the N-Judah I happened to miss as I was out of town this week in Ed Jew's hometown (and mine, before I escaped), in Burlingame, Anyway, MateoSF was kind enough to capture on video what could be the most iditotic Jedi move on the N-Judah ever - driving your frakking PRIUS into the Sunset tunnel!
Permalink Comments no no no greg thank YOU for being the voice of disenfranchised Muni riders all over the Sunset. I think we should use this to get the city to raise the fines for people who park in the Muni lane to "run a quick errand."
June 18, 2007 12:09 AM Too bad his Prius didn't have a pantograph to take advantage of the electricity in the tunnel. It should be pretty clear that the city needs to change it's policy toward blocking Muni. If I was stuck on that N trying to go home, go to work, see my friends, go to church, or do one of the dozens of other things that everyone else on that train wanted to do that night, I would expect our foolish Prius driving friend to shell out the cab fare for me and everyone else on the blocked trains.
June 18, 2007 08:25 PM Here's my suggestion for the guys fine: add up all the person-hours of delay the guy caused + any overtime costs for MUNI or SFPD people, and make the guy do that much MUNI-related community service. The same should go for anyone who delays a bus: You have do community service for (the duration of the delay you cause) x (the number of people on the bus).
June 19, 2007 08:58 AM I think the City should look at ways to prevent and prosecute this since it could have been unsafe to so many people. And the light-hearted attitude by everyone exemplifies how little this city, state and country support mass transit. In view of this, I don't feel the Prius driver did anyone any favors other than to convince them to stay in their cars and keep polluting. Hope someone UTubes him getting his repair bill since this could not have been good to his car's drive train, gas tank, tires, etc.. Wonder how well blocking a rail in Europe or drinking coffee in the New York metro system would fly. I know what would have happened to the Prius in the "developing" world.
One thing that SF, and most west coast cities have done well, is make "tickets" a source of "revenue" first, and relegated their original function, punishing bad behavior a distant second. I've seen the N blocked by double parkers more times than I care to count, and seen MUNI buses have to block rush hour traffic because some idiot decided to park his MINI in the stop. And yet, you park a car for 1 minute over the limit in a metered spot and someone tags ya with a ticket right away. Meanwhile, our Prius lad gets off with a laugh and a few pennies out of dad's pocket.
June 19, 2007 09:19 AM 1) The driver was definitely not drunk. I couldn't tell whether he was either totally clueless, or pulling a prank. The city should make blocking Muni a serious penalty - I'd argue for instant towing, but settle for a $150 or $200 fine. Selfish drivers should not have the right to use "convenience" as an excuse to inconvenience hundreds of others who rely on public transpo, and if they want that convenience, make them pay for it. The real hypocisy here is that the City claims to be doing things to reduce pollution, but essentially rewards drivers for irresponsible behavior by making the penalty too lenient to prevent violation, while simultaneously penalizing those who use transpo.
June 19, 2007 11:02 AM This proves just how inconsequential SF is. In any other large city this fellow would pick up a fat old ticket. if he had come into your garage for some hijinks he'd be looking at the business end of something something.
I think it's easy to forget that San Francisco is a city of less than a million people (about 750,000 according to Wikipedia), and as such , has the limitatoins and mindset of a smaller city. Yes, it's scenic, yes I like living here, and yes it's famous the world over and whatnot, but in the end, SF is smaller than LA and NYC by like, a longshot. Put it another way, can one walk across LA or NYC in less than a few hours?
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