Where to Stand

First Stop and Getting Started (excerpt from Finding Zen in San Francisco Transit)

First Stop and Getting Started

When I pull-out in the morning, I always smile and say hello to my first customer.  I try to make this an important barometer for how the day will go. The greeting gives me an instant check in to see where I am at in my head, and whether or not I am present to be of service. The job gives great paychecks, but I have always followed the precept that do what you like and the money will follow. I do know that placing service first is actually my best action to create job security. I am not surprised to admit that I may not be following this belief for more than half the time I spend behind the wheel.  Most of my actions become subconscious, which is great from a Zen point of view, but it takes considerable effort to get back to a service first mode when I am running late and heavy.  

I was jotting down ideas for chapters and this one popped into my head as I was doing pre-op on track 12. I would add chapter idea headings into a blank notepad in my shirt pocket—then add them to my netbook. If I ever had a block against writing, I could use those notes as a starting point to get my juices flowing. I had a blank as to what I was thinking when I put it in.  “Getting Started” could mean anything—waking up before coffee; getting to the bus stop to take a 22 to the barn; signing-in on the daily pull out coach assignment; finding the yard starter; calling Central Control and telling them I am blocked on track 4; running back to the tower to see if I could get someone from the shop to stop an air leak; or get out of restricted mode—just get the coach to move; or get the doors to open.

I remembered my tears as I was trying to make it to the gate to pull-out. My collectors had not been reset when someone de-wired pulling on to track 12 last night. I didn’t know how much leeway the wheel had against the wash rack, and I cut the turn too fast and too sharp and got caught in the wires. After finally coaxing the poles out of the web, I put them back on the wires only to de-wire again. I needed to be at 11th and Mission in five minutes and wasn’t going to make it. I began crying because I wasn’t even out the gate and was already an emotional wreck.

A couple of times, maybe three, I went through three coaches before I pulled-out. Finding a coach that is okay can be a game of musical chairs. As soon as I remember the wisdom of being Zen is kept when I throw out the schedule, or try to maintain the schedule, I immediately relax.  You could ask me a question about where I go if I am in the Zen. Thankfully, the SFMTA has purchased an entire fleet of new trolleybuses since this chapter was written in 2012, and there is little hunt and peck for equipment since 2018.

But getting started could be when the alarm goes off in the morning: did I get enough rest last night?  Am I too stiff?  Waking up with a crick in the neck is just awful—especially if we have to turn our head to the left to observe boarding passengers.  I have to check the condition my body is in when I wake up because I have learned the hard way that if I don’t take care of myself, I could be in for a bad day.  Nothing is worse than being tired behind the wheel of a bus in a busy city.  So getting started could actually be about how we approach the day when we first wake up.  Getting on a regular sleep cycle, when I don’t even need an alarm, is a good indication that I will be in the Zen zone for most of the time in the seat.

The great thing about the first stop and the first passenger is that none of burdens of being late or overwhelmed usually exist. I always try to find a start time that doesn’t put me behind the eight ball from the get go: there are certain quirks in the schedule that place cut-in coaches at a disadvantage at the first terminal.  Usually it because the leader is late and ends up being behind the cut in coach where the new coach begins service. At the first terminal, the pull out “leader” has to pull poles to let the follower regain leader headway.  With all the cuts to recovery time (2009, 2010) the leader may not have any wiggle room to relax and break before heading out from that terminal. Recovery doesn’t usually allow for enough time until around 10 a.m.

I have learned to cut-in at not necessarily the exact time, but to make sure my leader passes before I cut-in.  Sometimes it is easier to trail blaze ahead and keep the follower less busy so he can make better time to arrive at the next terminal with some recovery time.   All these nuances do influence how I feel when I get to my first terminal, and hence, shorten or lengthen my temper when picking up those first few passengers at the first stop. 

I found out that I am not a rush hour downtown bus driver.  I am a crosstown guy that avoids being on that inbound trip at 8:30 a.m. or that 5:15 p.m. trip outbound. Cross town is where it’s at for me.  The Muni meaning behind “doing homework” means checking out the paddles to see where the run is in the morning and in the afternoon.  People always ask me what the bad line is. I say there are no bad lines. Only bad leaving times.

Would I really like being on a run that leaves the Ferry Plaza at 5:05 pm, especially if there are tunnel problems?  Or would I rather be in Daly City leaving in the non-peak direction, with a few baby sitters or house cleaners returning home?

Would I rather be leaving the industrial area near Dogpatch on the 22 after 5 p.m., or in the Marina, hours after school has let out.  

Does my run leave Fillmore and Bay five minutes after the bell rings at the largest middle school in the system, or would I already be on the road ten minutes away from the school, heading up the hill past Union?  At Muni, just like in stand-up comedy, timing is key.