Free Ride

For those riders who are ready, a free ride is an opportunity to imagine what Muni would be like with no fare box at all. A smile and thank you is all it takes as a regular breezes by the yellow line to find a seat. The Zen zone is strong and the crunch zone seems A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Now is the time it becomes easy to spot those who have not mastered how to ride the bus in San Francisco.

I can put the defect card over the bill meter or clipper tag-in device with the words, Free Ride, Clipper not working. But this is not enough for those intent on paying a fare without the casual greater awareness of what is going on around them. Their tunnel vision is restricting their ability to learn and adapt to changing conditions around them. This can be fear based, or newcomer based. Either way, the free ride benefit of saving dwell time in the zone is completely lost upon these folks. I must find my Zen to minimize this loss of time and distraction. Usually hand signals work best. Waving my hand over the fare box and motioning to step past works best. I was able to get my Muni Diaries audience to practice this at my performance as Driver Doug!

They all started to make the waterfall motion as I kept repeating the motion over and over on stage. Ninety nine percent of intending cash fare boarders get it, even though they may pause to create brief bumper cars with the person behind them attempting to stick the dollar under the defect card. Or they attempt to tag over and over and over and over again. Chinese seniors are the number one record holder of consecutive tags on clipper when the system is not working. When clipper is off, and no sound emits from speaker, I can praise Tibetan Monks, Allah, or Prime Creator!

Being spiritual helps when a wardrobe malfunction occurs in lifting up a shirt or jacket with the pass on a lanyard around the neck. Or with a hip check running in to the person ‘next door’ also trying to pay the fare. Creating a fast track lane and an exact change lane by motioning with hand signals from my seat at a big stop brings smiles of relief from the crowd. Step Up Please! Exact change on the right, Clipper on the left! And the Zen of knowing when to use the two lane step up!

Those in the shop at the tower or on air at central control very rarely contain the empathy of what life is like for hours on end in the cockpit when something not safety significant is not working properly, or intermittent. At the end of the day, it’s not whether our request is heeded on the defect card, but rather how we let such a distraction become an entertainment. The musts of demonstrating the patience of a Muni bus driver can come in to play even in a free ride situation as their are those determined to pay a fare no matter what. Perhaps they just got dinged by a fare inspector. Maybe they have a strong resentment against those that do not show their fare and cheat the system, and they be damned if they board without a beep. Interestingly, this group is just as confounding as those that fumble without fare at the front door blocking the steps. If you don’t have your card out and need to ask a question, let others at the stop, who are ready, go first.

If you are a coach pulling-in, it never hurts to ask for a transfer when you get off. Back door boarders have this one down. Because the coach is a short line coach, a new transfer with more time is usually given. We cannot waste transfers and may have longer ones already cut. Whether you got on for free or not is not the pressing matter. What is on our mind as an operator is to go home! I forgot to get a transfer when I got on. This works great instead of the hostile name calling, going out the back door empty-handed. The next regular coach is usually right behind the short line pull-in coach, and if you are fast at exiting the front door, you can get a new transfer. Being polite and respectful to the operator pays dividends for a free ride, especially if my momma is not involved in your request.

So the free ride should become fun and easy. A smile and a nod is all it takes. If someone continues to dump coins or wedge a faded dollar in the slot, I can become Austin Powers, Church Lady, or O’be Wan Kanobi. Oh behave. Could it be Satan? May the Force Be With You. Or the English Church version: Peace Be With You.