muni maps by helena keeffe
november 3, 2007
about a month ago, when riding on muni, i noticed some peculiar posters perched up along the sides. besides the normal fare of human trafficking awareness, homelessness advocacy, and the now common place "i thought he was a great guy until he raped me" posters were some new ones depicting a muni driver, their first name, how long they've been an operator, and a quotation of memorable experience.
these last posters are part of a project by helena keeffe (muni maps) that went into the buses on october 1st. (the entire project has been active since july on market street, but when i walk down market i glaze my eyes over, clench my jaw, flex my neck muscles, and draw heartedly on a cigarette. this is my best attempt at conveying unapproachability because market street is really not a friendly place).
what i find so terribly odd about all this is neither that a project such as this should exist or that muni should publicly denounce human trafficking, the epidemic of san francisco homelessness, or male-on-male rape (these, obviously, are very awful things). but it's that muni would endorse the muni maps project by placing the posters in their own buses. not one of the three quotations by the operators tells a tale that makes me want to keep riding. in one, a totally crazy guy nearly crashes the bus, in another a bus rider has a seizure, and in the third, the only decent thing about it is that the rider made her interview on time - and there's no follow up if she actually got the job. there's no questioning the memorableness of the above situations, but i would hope in the combined 57 years of driving by the operators, at least one more encouraging story would be told - and it makes me wonder just how horrific the quotations by the other three operators must have been to not make it into the buses.
please bring back the posters of the 2007 bus roadeo winners. those were fun, and made me feel, if not quite safe, then in the belly of a super nimble public transportation fleet and at the hands of very capable and alert people. that's way better than crazies, seizures, and ecstasy for simply arriving on time.
these last posters are part of a project by helena keeffe (muni maps) that went into the buses on october 1st. (the entire project has been active since july on market street, but when i walk down market i glaze my eyes over, clench my jaw, flex my neck muscles, and draw heartedly on a cigarette. this is my best attempt at conveying unapproachability because market street is really not a friendly place).
what i find so terribly odd about all this is neither that a project such as this should exist or that muni should publicly denounce human trafficking, the epidemic of san francisco homelessness, or male-on-male rape (these, obviously, are very awful things). but it's that muni would endorse the muni maps project by placing the posters in their own buses. not one of the three quotations by the operators tells a tale that makes me want to keep riding. in one, a totally crazy guy nearly crashes the bus, in another a bus rider has a seizure, and in the third, the only decent thing about it is that the rider made her interview on time - and there's no follow up if she actually got the job. there's no questioning the memorableness of the above situations, but i would hope in the combined 57 years of driving by the operators, at least one more encouraging story would be told - and it makes me wonder just how horrific the quotations by the other three operators must have been to not make it into the buses.
please bring back the posters of the 2007 bus roadeo winners. those were fun, and made me feel, if not quite safe, then in the belly of a super nimble public transportation fleet and at the hands of very capable and alert people. that's way better than crazies, seizures, and ecstasy for simply arriving on time.