Islands vs. Curbs

On Market Street, there are two places on a block to catch or pick up a bus. If you have your Incredibles superhero costume tights on, you should know the newer ETI Skoda trolleys weigh about ten tons sans passengers, so be careful you don’t pull your back muscles when you catch the approaching bus and lift it above your head. For most of us mortals, however, taking a bus on the curb or on an island is recommended.

The curb stops are located mid-block, and the island stops are near an intersection by a corner or a cross street. Unbeknownst to most San Franciscans, however, is a method to the madness of these two sets of stops. Island stops outbound take you south of Golden Gate Park to the Sunset, and curb stops, located mid-block, take you outbound to the Richmond, which is north of Golden Gate Park. So, if you were heading to Cliff House, Lake Street, Land’s End, or the Legion of Honor, you would move to a curb stop after exiting a BART station under Market Street. These destinations are north of Golden Gate Park.

The 5, 21, 31, and 38 all go to the residential area (the Richmond) between the Presidio and Golden Gate Park. The 6, 9, 9L,71, 71L all stop on the outbound islands at an intersection on Market and take you to the Inner Sunset or points south of Golden Gate Park.

The 9 and 9L service the Bayview/Visitacion Valley area by diverging off of Market just before Van Ness. The point is that all these buses eventually leave Market Street, some sooner than others. The 1 never actually touches Market and is a good escape from downtown from Embarcadero BART if a special event is taking place on Market, such as a parade or protest. And we have tons of them.

The single aspect that puts San Francisco in the number one spot of living up to the phrase, “The City That Knows How,” is our flexibility about street closures and reroutes for ongoing and recurring special events. I don’t believe any other major metropolitan area has as many street fairs, farmer’s markets, special events, and parades as we do. The President was here again last week. Our Governator would also have meetings at a downtown hotel. The Defense Secretary was here to sign off on his Halliburton millions, and the list goes on for motorcade delays like marathons and races, the Bay to Breakers before Memorial Day weekend, various street fairs, Juneteenth, The Cherry Blossom Festival, Chinese New Year, The Dragon Parade, Freedom Parade, Dore Alley, Castro, Folsom, Fillmore Jazz, and Union Street fairs, North Beach art shows, art crawls, bike races, Fleet Week, and on and on. All have alerts and special reroutes and delays.

The only other thing to talk about is the islands on Market. If you look carefully at the Muni bus stop pole, the sign says weekdays only for certain buses. Those looking for express service would do well to read this information.

These flag poles have information most bus companies don’t provide at a stop. Inbound versus outbound is important for express service, as an X bus only works inbound in the morning and outbound in the afternoon. The exception is the 82X, which can be picked up on Main Street by the Federal Reserve building both in the morning and afternoon. This express is a loop that operates like a crosstown express loop during the morning and evening rush.

Charter and tour buses ferrying workers to the peninsula have filled in this lack of loop service not provided by city transit. A series of loops in the city would reduce the pickup and zone sharing at bus stops made by the shuttles, but this costly change in the past has not been justified by the riding numbers. The new density created by all the towers and buildings going up, however, may need a serious revisit on this possibility. Muni could run crosstown loops to connect with peninsula shuttles or Cal Train.

The express signs add the terms a.m. or p.m., and this is as important as the weekdays reminder! Keeping my Zen on, I try to collect these lost puppies, but sometimes it isn’t possible to capture everyone. Woe betides the operator on the F line on the weekend and good luck as an information specialist! This is why I love just driving the locals around on a Potrero barn coach.