Wednesday, May 30, 2007

BART vs CTA

Sam my dear I have been thinking of you. Here in Chi-town we have a subpar transportation system and we often blissfully think of other cities & their ease of transportation. Today my favorite CTA blog talked about how awesome BART and MUNI are and I couldn't help remember your ditty a few moths ago.

But here, I'll let you burst the bubble of those of us here wishing we lived in SF:

http://www.ctatattler.com/2007/05/riding_the_san_.html#comments

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Honestly, some days it's pretty good. This morning wasn't that bad. I mean I was late so I took the later muni and it was fairly pleasant. It wasn't over crowded, it didn't break down, an ambulance wasn't parked on the tracks, it was fine...until I got off and acidently knocked into some old man who actually GROWLED at me. I just looked at him square in the eyes and I said "EX-CUSE-ME" and walked away. In retrospect I should have said "Bad old man! Shame! Shame! Shame!" and wagged my finger at him. WTF? He growled? I'm not talking playful either. He actually growled and sounded like he'd rip my throat out. I don't think he was totally all there either. He looked like he meant business!!

So here are the things you have to know about muni: A. they are seldom on time despite the tracking devices. B. they often break down. C. A whole lot of crazy ride muni. D. A whole lot of showerless people ride muni. E. School groups should be banned from muni. F. Once you are in the city you can't get out--EVER until after rush hour. G. No one is willing to move on down, get out of the way, or make room for another passenger. H. Senior citizens are obnoxious. I. When you have to be there on time muni will have an "issue". J. Sometimes people not only urinate, but poop on muni. K. muni drivers don't tell you that your ride will be cut short until after you're trapped on board with no other options. L. Never believe a muni driver when they say "there's another car right behind me" M. Take a taxi after midnight, the "Owl" service is messed up. N. Never live on the "N" line or you will find out how bad muni actually is...like me..doomed.

Anonymous said...

Wait, you have tracking devices on your trains??!?!?!

Anonymous said...

Uh, yeah, of course we do! How else would we know when the train was coming? The tracking devices tell the electronic billboards how far away the train is and how long we have to stand outside in the fog!

Anonymous said...

we don't have traking devices... we just look down the tracks waiting waiting waiting for our trains to arrive. Heck our buses don't have radios for the drivers to communicate either.

Jenny said...

I had to wait while a bus stopped for a couple people the other day. It was super-annoying.

Anonymous said...

Of course the tracking system is highly optimistic and often wrong, because when it say's 3 minutes, it really means 45 seconds so sprint baby, sprint! My favorite was the time the board said there was an N in 4 minutes and 11 minutes, but nothing showed up because there was a breakdown on the tracks. Yes, they were 4 minutes and 11 minutes away, but they just couldn't get to me. So they aren't entirely reliable...And as for waiting for buses, do like the rest of us Jenny, just go around!