“Last stop people.” Another day closes. I can pull in knowing I passed the test in avoiding collisions with other cars, trucks, pedestrians, skaters, and cyclists. Most important, I didn’t make contact with any rideshare drivers looking down at their phone and being inattentive. The thousands of ride share cars coming in daily from out-of-county was not a development I wanted to see in my last years approaching the retirement ribbon. The wandering homeless and mentally-ill drifters add spice to travel when a salt-and-pepper diet may not be desired. Especially when traveling home after a tiring day at work. 

Dealing with the tour buses taking techies to San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties was annoying at first, in the mid-2000’s when the large 45 foot shuttles hogged our bus zones, but we overcame this by adjusting our times and learning how to stop behind them, or to wait for them to clear. The horse of a different color is the rush of small ride share vehicles clogging Market and stopping anywhere and everywhere after abrupt lane changes and U-turns!

The last stop is that of the subsidized Light Rail fantasy being promoted now in San Antonio, Nashville, and Tampa. Voters have more than once signaled they don’t want to pay for underground tunnels or light rail systems, yet the boondoggle continues. 

Now that rideshare vehicles are but a phone click away, ridership on all bus systems is down. Detroit, Sacramento, and Memphis have shown a 30 percent drop since 2010. Austin, Cleveland, Louisville, St. Louis, and Virginia Beach-Norfolk are down over 20 percent. Low gas prices could be to blame. Unfortunately, traffic delays are up, costing 300 billion a year in the U.S., and average of $1,400 per driver. Even in sacred transit friendly Portland, OR, only eight percent of the commute population uses transit, down from ten percent in the 1980’s.

The Institute of Transportation Studies at U of Davis, California, documents a six percent reduction in transit and shows half of all ride-hail trips would not be made at all if walking, using a bike, or taking transit. Perhaps this missive written from my point of view as a transit operator will become more of a sentimental historical document, rather than a crowd-breaking move to more transit riders. Indeed, the only thing breaking is transit infrastructure!

The good news is Stockton Street will soon reopen and our first new streetcar has passed certification in our underground tunnel. A new Central Subway tunnel and Rapid Transit Lanes are under construction to keep our fleet moving faster than traffic. This shouldn’t be so hard to do!

I have been blessed to keep end-of-the-line problems to a minimum by waking sleepers as soon as I see them slump, and by knowing where they want to get off. The key is to issue a wake-up call by leaving the seat and gently announcing their stop. Allowing them to fall into deep sleep costs valuable terminal break time when pulling-in.  

Having a hospital at our new outbound terminal has been a curse and a blessing. Persuasive powers come into play to follow their distracted thoughts to check in to detox or the emergency room. Encouraging inflections of tone in my voice will probably fall on deaf ears with hospital security, and all to often I face the full blown mental crisis up the hill on my terminal when attempting to leave! Dropping off an alcoholic in his cups to a hospital emergency room is not unlike a bouncer trying to push a problem drinker onto a bus driver.

Thank God Golden Gate Park is next to the hospital, and the dealer’s den on Haight street are also close by as a distraction to alcoholic ranting and raving from a rider in the back seat, lest they decide they need to go downtown, and not detox after all.

The deal is this: Don’t let them stay on before we go around the block to our terminal. Our terminal should be a time of refuge—a time of peace and quiet. This can only be attained by popping the brake and assisting our dear rider off the bus before we go around the block.  They can then disappear into the night like rodents that scuttle away when the lights come on. I have friends wishing to study to be a drug and alcohol counselors, and I believe bus drivers could use some classes! Trying to tell an alcoholic what to do is not an option. Being suggestive and prayerful works. Maintaining dignity and respect is the only key that works in the lock.

The road to happy destiny at the end of the line can come with experience and not from  more money in the budget for new rail lines.*

*Editor’s Note:  Since the writing of this book, and of this chapter, End of the Line, in June of 2018, our nation, our world, experienced a pandemic which radically changed the nature of public transit in large urban areas such as San Francisco. Commercial real estate, with its large downtown buildings upon whom our city dwellers clocked-in from nine to five, created strong demand during peak times. What we call rush hour in San Francisco which is earlier, from five to two or six to three to match New York financial market times, made for a long four hour comings and goings to downtown that came to become ghost town conditions. 

I guess, in a way, it was a dream come true for this, now retired, bus driver.  I put in for my retirement exit with the city on February 13, 2020, one month before the shit hit the fan with Covid. I had an intuitive sense to retire at age sixty-two and not wait until sixty-seven, for social security. I just made the paperwork deadline before my sixty-second birthday in June of 2020. But this means I had from March, April, May, and June to ride with my mask on and work about two days a week on a reduced schedule. 

The miracle was, for the first time in my twenty-two calendar years of work as a transit operator, I could keep to the schedule and have enough recovery time to compose myself and the end of the line on each trip! All the ride share and tour bus shuttle conflict to Silicon Valley was gone. Fights over the front seats were gone. Traffic was light, and the stress of driving the bus was reduced. My point is: this is a great time to get in to the job. I still don’t say career, because I don’t think most of us who work or have worked, for the Department of Transportation, consider bus driver as a career—but it could be considered as such. If you want it.

It definitely is not for most people, but if you know you’re one of us, Come on down!  as they say in the Price is Right game show. The security of a civil service job brought me the security of a steady paycheck without interruption. I suspect that the cost of maintaining a car and the price of fuel will turn the tide back to an increasing ridership in the cities such as San Francisco—sooner than we think. Indeed, the future of mass transit is on a road to a Happy Destiny! Peace be With You!

Driver Doug

Balboa Press rev. Sep 19, 2022

Guys, I did it! I kept the same job for over 21 years and got out clean! I got my retirement paperwork done three months before my 62nd birthday—on February 13th, 2020—one month before Covid hit. I did my last run on June 2nd, 2020.

That morning I woke from a dream of smiling faces and the sound of happy applause, which had the blessings and thanks from all my regular patrons who were with me on the bus—cheering me on.

There were no angels getting wings or any bells ringing as I pulled into the yard for the last time later that day around 5 p.m. An operator was getting out of her car getting ready to start her twilight shift, and I opened the bus front door and waved at her. “This is it! I’m done!” She smiled back after first seeing her standard Muni expression we have on our face before pulling out—an expression of exhaustion and anticipation with a sigh of acceptance of having a good paying job with a familiar routine.

This book is the final destination of my legacy of all that I learned and had to accept as a bus driver in San Francisco for over two decades.

I will miss you so much. I had a blast!

Named by Mayor James Van Ness in 1856, this 12.7 acre park in the middle of Victorian mansions built during the 1870’s to the 1920’s, was noted as a watering hole in between the commandant’s quarters in the Presidio and Mission Delores Basilica, both occupied and controlled by the Spanish, who were the first European inhabitants of San Francisco. A lone alamo, or cottonwood tree, marked the watering hole for both Spanish Army soldiers and later, San Francisco residents. If you look at Hayes Street between Pierce and Scott, and the southern edge of the park’s sidewalk, you can still see water weeping from the ground marking where this lone Cottonwood tree stood, marking the tiny oasis. This natural spring is more evident after a heavy rainfall. The steep grade running through the middle of the park is part of an unlisted fault line running through the city from the Presidio by the Lake District to the Bayview and the Hunter’s Point shipyard area.

Alamo Square has become a tourist must see spot to view the Painted Ladies, San Francisco’s first tract housing: houses built with no owner in mind. Most of the mansions built in the neighborhood followed the pattern of most home building at the turn of the century. Houses were built by the owner to be, and contracted out by a carpenter and builder known to the would be owner. This district is second only to Pacific Heights in density of 10,000 square foot mansions, some still undivided after all these years.

Another architectural fact is to notice which Queen Anne style windows still remain curved, and not replaced with square window frames. There are four basic architectural styles in San Francisco’s residential neighborhoods. Eastlake Stick, Italianate, Queen Anne, and Edwardian. The Painted Ladies, the picture postcard row of houses with the city skyline backdrop, are Italianate with gingerbread type scrollwork around the windows and eves, and ornate woodwork design, such as the dowel found at the roof ridge top. 

Eastlake Stick homes, named after the designer, Sir Eastlake, were available from the Sears and Roebuck catalog, and could be assembled from a kit delivered to you by boat or train in the days when weed and dune were fast vanishing to streets and wood frame houses. 

On the west side of the park, you can find the Italianate William Westerfield house, complete with widow’s walk and intense lightning rods on the roof and eves. This National Historic Landmark (no. 135) is worth seeing, as are the Seattle Block on Golden Gate and Steiner, and the Tivoli Theatre’s bed-and-breakfast hotel on the corner from the Seattle Block of houses. These latter buildings are more toward Queen Anne than Italianate, as they are marked with cupolas and curved windows. The final style is of Edwardian, usually the simplest in lines and complexity, and marked by huge rectangular windows.

The west side of Alamo Square has Edwardian houses, and you can see this by the huge windows on the front of the houses over the driveways. Proceeding west on Hayes, past Divisadero on the right side, you will find Eastlake Stick Sear’s specials, with only two stories remaining. The bottom floor was taken away after these houses collapsed in the 1906 earthquake!  

Divisadero Street is a great street for a bite, a drink, or a dessert. The Bi-Rite store has ice cream rated the best by many. My favorite sandwich shop is the Bean Bag Cafe. A neighbor of mine actually got married here, as loyal customers develop friendships that can lead to vows!

Also along “Divis”, as we nickname the street, are pizza, greek sandwich, and Louisiana fried chicken! If you are cycling through the area, there is Mojo Cafe, designed with you in mind. You can get the best bike ride routes from other patrons here. The Harding Theatre, dormant for years, is ready to open with a fresh marketplace interior.

The Alamo Square, or ‘Lone Cottonwood,’ is accessible on the 21 Hayes line which can take you from Ferry Plaza and the SF Railway Museum, all the way to Golden Gate Park. There you can transfer to the 5R Fulton and traverse the entire 3.5 mile journey along the park to Ocean Beach for a view of Cliff House and Seal Rock. 

In any event, the 21 Hayes can easily qualify as The Trolleybus to Happy Destiny as it slices through the Heart of San Francisco.

One defect that does not usually appear on the defect card is that of stop request.  Most of the time, we as operators, become so familiar with our routine on our run that we almost don’t need the stop request lights or bell, to know where and when people are getting off the bus.  Likewise, we know where we must stop and open the doors, even if it first appears that no one is intending in the zone.  Hospital stops are a no brainer for coming to stop and lowering the kneeler automatically.  Certain places around  corners and with limited sight distance are also a good place to stop even if we hear no ring.  Hermann is such a stop on the 22.  Also Kansas before turning toward Seventeenth.   

Recent changes to our operating rules through voter initiatives, and with technology, have given a strong voice to our riding public and given managers’ tools to enforce the rules and make those of us who operate the buses, more accountable to our actions.  It used to be you guys were just as tired and fed up (as we were) when you were on your ride home, that no way were you going to find the Muni number, and dial on your land line to an office that was now closed, about being passed up by a Muni bus.  Today, with cell phone in hand, and a simple 3-1-1 on speed dial,  a call can be placed immediately and a written record and ID number generated on the spot.  When I was being observed, I received a call from central control about someone I had passed up three stops back. Wow!  That is a big change from the first ten years I spent behind the wheel with only the land line number 673-M.U.N.I.  

The bottom line I learned from all this was that not observing the one block spacing rule can get me in trouble when my leader is close in front, and another bus, such as the 14 is behind me.  I have to realize that new riders are not hip on how to signal a coach at a multiple line stop.  Not “being ready” is not a valid excuse as a pass-up.  The only one needed to be “taught a lesson” was me! 

Twelfth and Otis is one of those “around the corner” stops that need be made, even if we don’t see anybody waiting as we turn the corner from the 49, or cross-over 101, on Mission.  A coworker recently commented on a PSR he got as a pass-up at this stop.  No one was waiting at the stop and he kept on going.  I too, have done this many times, but have been written up for accumulating too many of these non stop, bus stop actions.  Coaches send digital information from their onboard mother board about how many times we open the doors, and for how long and at what stop.  Every action on the bus is recorded including PA announced stops.   

With the simplicity in calling a three digit number, 3-1-1, and a digital camera file in cloud storage, not on a seventy-two-hour loop (that erases and re-records,) those of us who have been around for ten plus years, must adapt to this change and realize that pass-ups we make to manage our passenger load or headway, must be made, even if this causes delay.    Coming to the curb and opening the door may no longer be enough to satisfy the requirement of making a stop.  Moving away from the curb can only be made if there is no billboarding from other large vehicles. 

This change is hard to make to override  a habit I have developed over a period of time.  I have been so obsessed with continuing to make the schedule at all costs, that I have reduced dwell time in the zone at certain stops.  I am overcoming this by trying to stay in one place and keep my doors open longer.  Even still, there are some late runners who don’t make it in time, and I have to let go of the outcome.  I must be clear of fear, as to whether the latecomer will call in on 3-1-1 and complain that I passed them up.  There appears to be an invisible ledger of karma that can keep trouble at bay, if I have waited for runners.  Same is true for right-of-way with other cars.

There seems to be an increased perception from those that miss my bus, that I am not doing my job when I do not stop.  I have accumulated too many pass-up notices within a three month time frame.  Once again, our mirrors only  capture a small zone alongside our bus, and we may not see someone running from across the street or perpendicular to where our coach is standing.  As a passenger, just yesterday, I saw this happen several times while I was sitting in the last seat at the back of the bus:  People would run from the BART station steps on the side of the bus, and I could see them running, but the operator could not see them and pulled away.   This makes us look  bad, but we aren’t intentionally passing them up.  This hasn’t been easy.  Especially with new riders.

Some seasoned riders still have trouble with transfers and the stop request. They desire to get on a 1 California bus going all the way to Thirty-Third Avenue and Geary outbound and do not believe they should re–board a short line coach to Presidio Avenue, and then re-board the Thirty-Third Avenue coach at Presidio. During peak period, they get the thumb from passing Presidio destination operators, only to be passed-up by the full terminal coach—passing in the second or third place—after a parade of short line coaches.

Getting angry and calling 3-1-1 is a passive-aggressive result not solving the pass-up. This complaint was posted on a general bulletin board in the division, as a method of communicating to all drivers.  The solution is as simple as boarding the first coach and riding to Presidio, or moving to a stop where the Thirty-Third Avenue coach invariably stops. The problem is where the intender is trying to board, and not communicating with the driver of the bus they need. I know who and where this occurs, and all she needs to do to change the problem, is talk to the operator of the coach she boards, and then talk to the Thirty-Third Avenue operator when she transfers. 

I know this woman, because ten years ago she was having the same problem! I asked her to board my short line coach and then transfer. She refused. She said she would wait for “her bus”. Her failure to change her behavior for a different result has not materialized in a decade! Complaining to the third-party call center never brought about the change she needed. Her scowling face and hostile attitude waiting on the pass-up corner, just reinforced the surety from the passing operators to stay clear of ‘the problem’ intender. Not honoring the one block spacing rule is usually to cause of this problem. This is how management can solve the problem. An inspector at Polk should do the trick. 

To be sure, she should not have to board a Presidio coach: the expectation to ride only one coach to the end is reasonable; but this hasn’t happened while I was away at Potrero for 8 years, so I qualify this as insane thinking on the part of the passenger. Doing—or not doing—the same thing over and over—expecting different results—means there is no willingness to change. Extra board daily details, a shortage of operators, vacations and the like—clouds the responsibility and discipline of who, what, or when and where. 

What she doesn’t understand is that Thirty-Third Avenue coaches inbound get delayed by the extra work they do inbound. Short line operators outbound have an easy time of it, and, at first blush, stop to pick her up. But when she says over and over, “No, I want Thirty-Third.”—the next time they see her on another day, they give her the thumb. The Thirty-Third Avenue operator sees her angry stand, and stays clear. Dear Rider, you attract more bees with honey, not as a fly in the ointment! 

Good luck! 

I’ll be on the 1 again this summer, and I am not going to repeat my missive to you as I tried to explain to you ten years ago. Either you’re in or you’re out; just like Danny Ocean to Linus in the movie Ocean’s Eleven!

I hope I am not considered too old a dog,  so I can be taught new tricks!  But tricks ain’t happening, at least not in the Superintendent’s office and looking at file footage of an incident from a complaint!  I have to do what has been suggested:  slow down and not worry about a full bus.  “Let them wait.” is the affirmation I need in my mind to stay fit. These are the two biggest demons I have had to fight on the job with headway changes. If I can cross the retirement ribbon  finish line with my operator status in good standing, I will have crossed victorious!  Keeping Zen is all the challenge I will ever need.   And it is a basic as this topic and the action in a stop request inside or outside the coach. Editor’s note: Driver Doug did it! 

So I have been reborn with awareness about the pass-up and the stop request.  The computer registers every time we open the door, and for how long.  Dwell time in the zone is captured and recorded.  APC coaches, marked on the front windscreen, count how many board and depart at each stop.  APC stands for automatic passenger counter.  You can see these as a passenger by those red lights reflecting like a laser beam at the top of the stairwells.  

When I am assigned such a coach I make sure I capture that extra person running from a transfer coach at a transfer point from another line.  I wait for the 1 California, the 2 Clement, and the 5 Fulton.  The gratitude I receive when I wait for runners is worth the wait!   I know I am having a good day at the ‘office’ when I have room to wait.  Increasing the time I have by servicing the zone with an APC coach in keeping the doors open helps keep the Zen of the Trolleybus of Happy Destiny going on the job!

My views are based upon my years of experience and may go contrary to my union’s view, based upon many operators with much experience. Union members are elected by the group of operators, and my chapter essays are only taking my personal view into account. My star-cast and life reading from the Cayce society point out I must find my own personal leadership style but must consider helping groups of others or find intimate mates to assist in love and service rather than be my own captain of the ship. 

A friend asks on Facebook, “What can be done about the homeless encampment that is a bus shelter stop at Leavenworth and Post?”  I hesitate to answer this question in the comment box in response to his post about Post. This is where it is a good place to state, “The views contained herein do not necessarily reflect the views or rules of the SFMTA or it’s employees.”

Indeed, these missives bound together in a book are all from self, with my exclusive point of view, usually done without running it through a coworker. I found out the hard way that editing with another pair of eyes, for example, is a necessary standard in helping an author I could not admit.

Rear door boarding is an issue many of my coworkers did not agree with, but I did. Rocking down the Mission, I was able to easily keep to the schedule and reduce dwell time in the zone by clicking open all doors. The largest complaint I get at the fare box is from riders who question what I am to do about checking the fare of those who do not pay by boarding in the rear. 

I was a strong advocate for rear door boarding and it seems management acceded to this request, to the behest of the union, and nowhere does this become more apparent than at a shelter stop where the shelter has become a shelter for homeless, street druggies, and drug dealers. To be sure, minimizing open rear door dwell time can prevent drama from those who do not pay. To me, the open door policy minimizes drama and confrontation, and speeds running time down the line. To others, if feels like loss of control and opening pandora’s box. This is a tough one to reconcile.

So when confronting the dilemma of unclean or blocked seats at a bus shelter, I must tread carefully, and seek wise counsel about what to do. Based on calls to TMC (Transit Metro Control) on the radio, when two or more calls come in to the radio operator, action is taken. 

So my solution to a dirty shelter encampment would be to have my friend get other neighbors in his building, or those he sees at the bus stop, to call 3-1-1 and put in a service request to clean the shelter. Another point would be to bring up health and safety. These are two golden words that make a difference. All shouting, pouting, and profanity on the phone lines to our call center are not as effective as saying in a detached voice and tone, “For health and safety.” 

We are continually reminded from inspectors on the street, and over the radio and in training mode that safety is our highest and first priority. This is the the golden rule I present to the riding public and reader of this tome. Use the golden rule to have and effect and affect change.

I came up with this chapter topic because I had some cool photos of some shelters being installed by our barn on Presidio Ave. Soon after I took photos of a brand new shelter, youth running from police in presumably a stolen car, took out that shelter. I got a picture of this newly installed shelter and it’s short lived life. 

Indeed, the road to happy destiny takes many rough turns. Bus mirrors hit the shelter, wheel chairs get caught between the poles, and crack heads crack all the glass all the time. The shards can be resold as ‘ice’ to unsuspecting ‘forty niners’ new to the city. 

Just like panning for gold, the instinctive street wary denizen can sell useless broken glass as a new wonder drug to the latest techie going down from a crystal meth or heroin binge fueled by the bounty of VC: in this era, not the Viet Cong, but venture capital. And so goes the boom and bust cycle of San Francisco. Like the helter skelter in the life of a bus shelter, it goes up and it comes down. 

Just like sitting at the dock of the bay watching the tide, the road to happy destiny does have it victories and defeats.

This is a fun game to play, as is Charades, in a large group at a party. But if that party is a waiting queue on Market Street on Fourth or Fifth, the game becomes no fun real fast as the lights go red again, and the buses back up behind the red lane in the middle of the street. I am currently in a dilemma about how to come to the end of the game fast enough to get the party moving!

The quickest solution, as any experienced improvisation comedian will attest, is to agree with anything! The secret to improv is to agree with your antagonist in the audience or on stage, to keep the train moving, usually with hilarious inventive add ons. The same could be said with giving directions in a crowd of visitors. 

“Do you go to the Piers?” Yes. 

“Do you go the Wharf?” Yes. 

“Do you go to the Bay?” Yes.

 “Do you go to Market?” Yes. 

Should not that be the end of it? Unfortunately, no. More questions to follow. So here is where I have to get the flock moving. Hmm. We know from Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel that huge numbers of birds take flight when a threat is perceived. 

That’s it! I need to give them a threat to get them moving! But I need to stay calm and friendly.