The Dao of Doug 3: the Trolleybus of Happy Destiny

Douglas Meriwether

Description

I am continually inspired by those who: take the bus to work; to play; to get around this exciting city: Students, businesswomen, and tourists: all walks and wheels who enter and exit the bus towards their next destination. Here is the answer to the request I get often, “Driver Doug you should write a book!” Get inside the Trolleybus of Happy Destiny and open a page, a chapter, and see what life is like behind the wheel as a Transit Operator in the City that Knows How: San Francisco!

Sujets

• Public Transportation
• Transportation

Informations

• Publié par: Balboa Press
• Date de parution: 25 novembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798765236178
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

The Dao of Doug 3: The Trolleybus of Happy Destiny
 
 
 
 
 
 
Douglas Meriwether
 
 
 
 

 
Copyright © 2022 Douglas Meriwether.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
Balboa Press
A Division of Hay House
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.balboapress.com
844-682-1282
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
ISBN: 979-8-7652-3618-5 (sc)
ISBN: 979-8-7652-3616-1 (hc)
ISBN: 979-8-7652-3617-8 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022921794
 
Balboa Press rev. date:  11/09/2022

Dedication
Dedicated to all those who take mass transit on a regular basis, those who have encouraged me to write my story, and the hundreds of family and friends who know someone who drives a bus for a living.
The views herein do not necessarily reflect those of the S FMTA.
Contents
Alpha Dog
Rider Alert
The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease
A Rose by Any Name
Tree Trimming
Great Expectations
Summertime in the City
Kitty-Corner
One-Armed Bandit
Past Halfway
The Sisters of Charity
Sakude!
Retarder Control
Bus Bunching
Bikes Pass on the Left
Tagging the Coach
Drug Roll
Flu Shot
The Complaint Department
Leading Green
Quid Pro Quo
Driverless Cars
Night Park
Better Safe than Sorry (Friday the Thirteenth)
Pudding Pants
Transmitter Ball
Twenty Questions
Ferry Plaza
The Weird Curve
The Fulton 500
Let It Settle
Scuff Left
Game Boy
Timed Transfers
The New Fare Box
The New Radio System
Helter-Skelter Shelter: Rear Door Boarding
Powerless on Post
Taxi Patterns
Hitting Hard
Water Truck
Litterbugs
Recycling Day on the Bus
Muni Bathrooms
Compulsive Honking Syndrome
Lane Closed
Gate Hopper
Stop Request: Old Dog, New Tricks
Behind the Yellow Line
Rollover
Blind Spot
Vision Zero
SF Railway Museum and Gift Shop
Alamo Square
Breakdown
Why Be a Driver?
End of the Line
 
The Dao of Doug: Finding Zen in San Francisco Transit: A Bus Driver’s Perspective (Dao 1) Glossary 1
The Dao of Doug 2: Keeping Zen in San Francisco: A Line Trainer’s Guide Glossary 2
About the Author

Alpha Dog

People watching is the greatest benefit of being a transit operator in Baghdad by the Bay. Friends and family always ask about the great benefits that a civil service worker must have. I usually mention the post office as having the best-defined contribution plan or pension. But in the day-to-day flow of ants moving to and from the anthill—the skyscrapers built on the bones of boats in the Bay downtown—it isn’t a column of numbers in the year-to-date tab on a paycheck that is a job perk of being a bus driver in the arteries flowing from the heart of San Francisco. The benefit is not being stuck inside an office.
It is feeling as though you are on the outside. Yet when the fog is freezing the bones and the wind is whipping through your layers, the bus is like a shelter from the elements. To comfort those at the mercy of the weather, it becomes important to stop close to the alpha dog in the queue on the sidewalk so all can enter the bus as soon possible without blockage at the gate.
Visitors are easy to spot as the alpha dog always holds all the transit passports in their hand for all of the group. They usually follow at the end of the queue. When a large family passes by the fare box without paying, the alpha comes up the steps at the end with the fares. Sometimes a large group passes, and there is no alpha with no fare! To keep my ambassadorial role as a representative of the city, I don’t say anything. When I do, they usually have their fare buried in the back of their backpacks. This is another example of how we fail the city. No one assumes responsibility to inform them on how to ride, where to stand, or how to validate their passes.
A fare only becomes valid once the month and the day or days are scratched off on the passport sheet, which is not unlike a lottery scratch ticket. Fortunately, the 21 Hayes is a great bus line that permits the time to teach visitors. Other arterial lines are not such. Rear-door boarding is allowed and little time for conversation is allowed between the rider and the driver. Crosstown buses are best for enlightenment and understanding.
Many times the person asking the questions is in front and the ticket holder is at the rear. I can usually tell who they are. If they are asking a question I don’t understand, I ask them where they are going. If they can’t answer this, I switch over to intuitive mode and say yes and ask them to step up. When this fails, I beckon them with my hand.
When this fails, it’s because I have put too much expectation and hesitation in my voice, and I have to let it go. A simple nod is all I need. Then if it turns out they are going the wrong way, there is usually a better transfer point down the line that will get them on the right bus with less confusion. I need to remember when I was new to the city and did not know inbound from outbound because tall hills or the fog make it impossible to know which way is downtown or east versus west.
Talking to just one person, the alpha dog as zen master, is best to keep the herd in line!
Rider Alert

Nothing is more disconcerting than seeing people waiting for a streetcar that isn’t coming. Especially in the afternoon when the fog is rolling in and visitors are caught in shorts and without jackets. If you plan to visit San Francisco between the Fourth of July and Labor Day, prepare for early spring/winter conditions. Even though century mark temps are only a few miles away from San Fran’s city limits, maritime conditions prevail in the city. Mark Twain said, “The coldest winter I ever spent was the summer I spent in San Francisco.” This applies to July and August in the city. If you are dying of the heat back east and in our Central Valley, then do come and enjoy our natural air-conditioning! I am familiar with the challenge of packing in hot weather back home, going to sunny California, but not here between the ocean and the bay.
When I do the 21 Hayes, I travel down Market Street and see all the tourists waiting for the streetcar to take them to Fisherman’s Wharf. They pack into the cars like sardines and creep toward the Ferry Plaza. Little do they know, they can take any bus or trolley down the street to Kearny and take an 8 to Chinatown, Coit Tower, and then Pier 39.
Any disruption on the rails can block the track and cause a large queue of intending passengers on the islands on Market Street, particularly at Fifth, Fourth, and Main. At these times, it pays to take a 6, 21, or 31 to Ferry Plaza and transfer to the E Embarcadero streetcar. An express line 8X bus crossing Market at Third to Kearny is a great crosstown shuttle to Pier 39 and helps to clear the islands and get you moving to have fun.
The SFMTA posts “Rider Alert” signs in red and white or orange to let you know when stops and streets are closed to traffic. It’s important to notice these a day or two before an event. Indeed, many find a never-again attitude about transit because of a lack of communication about rider alerts. This is where an Amber Alert-type message can and should be adapted to our smartphones with GPS technology developed by Uber and driverless car coding.
Rather than stymie new creative GPS tech, Muni should work with Uber to track not only their own rideshare cars but also the buses. This would open up bus stops to rideshare pickups when no buses are arriving or departing. Minutes go by when it is safe to use a bus zone, and this priceless curbside real estate can be easily shared with GPS tech. So too could the large tour bus shuttles be included with this zone sharing. The key here is that transit is being administered as a unified body of vehicles, not separate entities fighting and blocking one another.
As a governmental body, our transit department just had another resignation, now bringing the vacant manager positions to eight. Coordination is lost. Creative, new ideas are vacant because self-preservation mode is on and no bigger picture can be established, much less horizon goals of integration as a whole.
Eventually, rider alerts could be all done electronically from an application rath