24 Questions and Thoughts While Riding BART

Have you ever thought of these questions or said these statements while waiting around or riding BART?

1. It's the only seat left in the car and it has a stain. Should I take the seat?
2. Why won't people move to the next car? It's crowded on this one, but the other one is empty.
3. Can you please not board the train while people are exiting?
4. Move to the right side of the escalator if you are going to stand, jackass.
5. I don't want a foot on my ass, so get your feet off the seat.
6. Your luggage is not a human body, get it off the seat.
7. Please don't pick your nose and grab the pole after that.
8. Eeew, clip your nails at home.
9. If the sticker says on the doors are broken, don't stand there waiting for the door to open.
10. Just because BART's tunnels now have cell phone service doesn't mean you can talk as loud as you can to compensate for the loud tunnel noise.
11. What's in the news today? Let me look at the newspaper the person in front of me is reading.
12. Thanks for breaking the train doors, dummy. Now I can't get to work on-time.
13. You must be stupid to park your car in a bus only lane at Daly City BART so you can pick-up your wife. I'm hoping a Samtrans bus smashes your rear end.
    
14. Did you bring a bike on BART? Good for you, healthy exercise. Just keep it off the escalators.
15. Where's my hand sanitizer?
16. Let's play... guess the mystery stain on the BART train's blue carpet!
17. The first ever passenger on BART was Richard Nixon. Oh hell, he left a big fat curse on the agency because fares keep rising every few years.
18. How soon will the passenger next to me go deaf? I can hear the music leaking out of the earphones while the train car is making loud noises in the tunnel.
19. I just heard the word "ahhh," time to move to the next car because I think the person just farted.
20. Good, there's no floor to ceiling poles on BART. All I need is crazy people doing terrible pole dancing.
21. I know you enjoy drinking that soy nonfat latte with a shot of vanilla syrup and extra foam, but all I need is to get my dress pants stained.
22. There's nothing worse than the vomit inducing smell of fast food french fries on the train.
23. When BART fails, there's always AC Transit. Ha!!! Another round of AC service cuts coming soon.
24. I don't need help with the ticketing machine Mr. Crazy Dude.
    

One Thousand Supports Ike's Place to Open at SF State

Just after 5:30PM on Tuesday, Ike Shehadeh, owner of the famed Ike's Place, put out a major message to the world, he wants to open a location at San Francisco State University. It was a big surprise to me and my fellow colleagues on the campus.

It's not just the shock that Ike wants to open up on the campus, but the huge support of people wanting Ike and his famous dirty sauce to be there.

Someone created a Facebook page titled: "Bring Ike's Place to SFSU" and I thought it was cool to sign up since there was about 20 of my friends who "liked" the idea. Less than 12 hours later, over 250 also clicked on the "like" button in support. Nearly two days later, the fan page has over 1,000 supporters (at time of this posting, it's now 1,037).

Isn't it amazing? A guy whose luck was running out on his 16th Street location has been expanding his sandwich empire around the Peninsula, opening a location at Lime on Market, and now wants to be at my alma mater? I'm getting hungry!

What's Causing the Clipper Card Reader Meltdowns?

Beep beep beep beep beep (multiplied by several dozen times), but nobody is tagging their card... That's the sound of Clipper card readers on vehicles on a meltdown.

This was brought to my attention through a cell phone recording and was also featured on Muni Diaries around two weeks ago. Before you hit play on that video, you might want to turn down your speakers.

Even some people on Twitter are complaining of the readers going on meltdown. Here's one, and another. I've even noticed it myself when I was just leaving Embarcadero station from the ballgame and noticed some Muni employees staring at the N-Judah's card reader making those excessive beeping noises. It almost felt like the employee wanted to grab a baseball bat and take a swing at it.

It brings out an interesting question, why in the heck are the vehicle readers acting up on Muni? This is a totally new phenomenon that has only been happening for the past month.

If there are SFMTA/Muni and/or Clipper/MTC officials out there reading this, please comment back or e-mail me about why this is happening. I think the public has a right to know why these card readers are going nuts.

If you have your own story about the card readers melting down, leave me a comment. I'd love to hear what you have to say.

Update 12/9/10 - Problems still persist, even after a promised fix in November. Read story here. -- End of Update --

PSA: Are you Registered to Vote in California's November 2nd Elections?

Are you ready to vote in the November 2nd elections? It's one of the finest privileges a citizen of the United States is entitled to. We use the power of voting to elect people to office and pick if we approve or disapprove of propositions for items such as funding, capital projects, and our environment.

For this blog post, I won't take any sides and remain neutral.

I advise you to read the ballot measures carefully before saying "yes," "no," or not voting (abstaining). It is best to review each ballot item on the card/screen, then vote after reading all of them.

• If you are not registered to vote, visit the California Secretary of State's website to register to vote. The last day to register is October 18th, and if mailed, must be postmarked by this date.
• If you are registered to vote, but need to check your status, click here for a list of county government websites or the proper phone number to call.
• If you are unable to vote in-person, consider voting early. An absentee ballot (vote by mail) is the easiest way. If you live in San Francisco and registered for an absentee ballot, you should have received yours; but if you did not choose an absentee ballot, use the local elections book's back page and mail it in to request for one. The best part, the city pays for the return postage!
  

Should the Clipper Card Get a Makeover?

With the end of the Muni "A" paper adult fast pass coming very quickly, many now have to get a blue colored Clipper card as their new buddy to carry with them for their rides.

Muni Diaries asked their readers for their thoughts of losing their colorful paper passes for the Clipper card, and I thought, wouldn't it be great if we could customize our Clipper cards?

It's an interesting concept to have your own customized Clipper card. Some credit card companies lets you upload a photo of your liking and it will be imprinted on your card. The Subway sandwich card can be ordered with whatever image you want to add with a nominal fee for the service.

People commenting on my suggestion on Muni Diaries said it would be a great fundraising idea if an organization bought a bulk of them, such as the SPCA. Clipper could also issue out limited edition cards for major occasions, just like how the Washington Metro system gave out limited edition Obama SmarTrip cards on inauguration day.

How about a kids art contest? The one picked as the best will be one of the new limited edition cards people can obtain and maybe as a fundraising tool to support local schools in the Bay Area.

Of course, the ultimate offer would allow people to put their own favorite images on their card for a fee. I could put my picture on it so people who steal my card will feel sorry for me.

Big Clipper Updates - Lots Happening in the Months Ahead

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission's Operations Committee is meeting this Friday at 9AM and much of their agenda is covering upcoming changes in the Clipper program.

It's my understanding the Clipper management board, manned by directors of the major transit agencies, has been not had any meetings after the conversion from TransLink to Clipper. Basically, the Operations Committee and a couple of other committees are de facto Clipper boards.

Here's some of the new info about the Clipper program:

• For those of you who wants the BART high value discount tickets, but don't want to use the autoload program, you are in luck, BART is asking the MTC for it. There is no set deadline, but once implemented, you can purchase it as easily as buying your monthly passes and adding e-cash at vendors, machines, online, and by phone.
• Cubic's customer service for Clipper "did not meet four of the 10 cardholder support performance requirements." They are trying to remedy the issues by increasing staffing and "other initiatives." The agenda document did not provide any helpful info into how the customer service portion is not meeting their goals.
• We've been waiting for some in-person customer service centers and I'm happy to announce some great updates: There will be two in-person centers in San Francisco and one in Oakland. They claim to they "are about to commence work..."
• By the end of the year, AC Transit 31-day passes and BART EZ Rider cards will be phased out.
• Samtrans is expected to be ready to accept Clipper cards on December 15th.
• VTA is expected to be ready to accept Clipper cards in February 2011.
• Conversion of BART paper media (green and red discount tickets, and high value discount) should be completed by May 1, 2011.
• Caltrain is planning to convert their 8-ride and monthly passes by January 31, 2011.
• Muni is planning to convert their passports on June 30, 2011, and transfers by September 30, 2011. I don't really know how Muni is going to sort-out the conversion of all paper transfers to Clipper.
  

Cool fact: Did you know SFMTA/Muni sells 40,000 "A" passes every month? With less than 30 days until the mandatory switch from paper passes to Clipper cards, it's going to be a massive undertaking for a smooth transition. It's a big benefit for Muni because they will save thousands of dollars by not printing all those passes. I'll miss all those colorful passes throughout my life, but it's time to move into the future.

A Newer Way to Evade the Muni Metro Gates

If you thought the Muni metro gate fiasco is over, think again. Muni is still working with Cubic to fix the existing problem of people using their hand to open a gate, but now there's another way to enter the system with much less effort.

Since many Muni metro stations have two booths, a primary booth manned all the time and a secondary booth normally during weekday rush hours and some weekends, the agency has instated a new policy:

• Passengers with valid proof of payment, other than Clipper cards and paper magnetic stripe passes, can now enter the metro system by using the gate closest to the unmanned booth (sign shown in the photo). The gate is unlocked when a passenger walks towards it.

It's not a big shock to me, because it's just another way to evade the system, just like the swing gates were used during the 30+ year era of the turnstiles.

On one hand, it's another way to evade the system if you don't have valid proof of payment, but the other benefit is that if you have a pass or paper transfer not compatible with the gates, there's an easy way to enter the system than hauling your butt to the other set of gates.

Even if the booth is unmanned and there's fare inspectors nearby, they might not even notice those who are evading because they are not doing the hand trick over the sensor. Someone could act like they are tagging their Clipper card (using some non-RFID card) and enter the system, and it doesn't look suspect at all. The flipside of this is if a passenger with no intention of evading tags their card improperly and they walk through the gate doors that opens automatically (without the need to tag); the Clipper card is invalid (not tagged) and may get cited by an inspector for evasion during their journey or when exiting.

Here's the sign in full: