This photograph was taken at approximately 5pm, on May 8, 2008. A post on Examiner.com states that a pedestrian on 7th street and Mission was hit by the 14L, while crossing the street.

I keep hearing from neighbors about the demise of the 15. From North Beach we now have very constricted ways to get downtown and to the BART lines. This is fallout from the T-Third. The 15 was discontinued in April, and now all roads basically point to Chinatown. It sucks. Taking the 30 means: sitting through the madness of produce trucks unloading, with a glittering prospect of Union Square shopping madness afterwards. The old 10 route went quickly down a one-way street.
MUNI news report.
Discontinued 15 route: PDF
Two neighbors now make the haul out to the 10. The issue I have with the 10 is that if it’s having issues, I don’t have a backup out there, except for the F-Ferries, which has an even more infrequent run. Twice I’ve just taken cabs because both failed me. The 15 was a great route. The one-ways on the other side of Telegraph are a key to getting folks out of the North Beach area. Funnelling through Chinatown is not a wise idea.

A few weeks ago I explored some of the lesser-known aspects of the Bay Area. For example, did you know that Muni runs a bus that goes to Marin? The 76-Marin Headlands goes from the Caltrain depot to Fort Cronkhite once an hour every Sunday.

The 76 also stops at a place called Site SF-88, which was part of a network of 280 Nike missile sites intended to guard U. S. cities from Soviet bomber attacks during the Cold War. (Here’s a map of Nike sites in the Bay Area, and an article about them from the Straight Dope.) The military shut down SF-88 in 1974 (the ICBM having made the Nike pretty much obsolete), but now you can visit the site as I did and see a slice of Cold War history. Pictures after the jump.
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I just got a report from the Castro station that all inbound Muni trains are halted due to a derailment at Embarcadero station so if you’re planning on heading into the city you might want to find alternate transport until the mess is cleared up.

Today was the last day of operation for Muni’s 15-Third line, an unglamorous diesel which ran from one end of the city to the other, connecting Fisherman’s Wharf with City College via Columbus Avenue, the Financial District, 1st and Market, the CalTrain Station, Dogpatch, and Ocean Avenue.

The 15 was important to me early in my years in San Francisco, when I loved hanging out in North Beach but couldn’t afford to live anywhere near it. I also was a member of a dance collective (it was the early 80s, you know) with a studio out on Third and 20th Streets in a converted factory building. Sometimes, after performances, reluctant to go back to my little room in a flat shared with roommates I didn’t like very much, instead of catching the 22 back to the Fillmore I would catch the 15 to North Beach and go to City Lights Books and walk around. I was too broke to go into any of the bars and too shy to go into any of the strip clubs, but the funky action of North Beach still cheered me.

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At a loss about locations where you can buy a Fast Pass, the monthly pass to San Francisco’s public transit? You could consult Muni’s online directory of Fast Pass vendors, but beginning April 10, Muni will sell passes online from their website.

And beginning April 7, the T-Third line will open full-time. Among other things, this means the death of the 15 Third St. bus. The 15 line’s extension into the Financial District and North Beach will be taken over by extending the 9-San Bruno line.

Finally, city officials are trying to crystalize support for the Central Subway, a huge project that will build a new line extending from 4th and Townsend to Chinatown, largely replacing the 30-Stockton — one of the most overcrowded bus lines in the country, I’ll bet. Trains might be running in the hole by 2015, just in time for Barry Bonds to hit home run number 2500.
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From the N Judah Chronicles, via Mason Powell. Apologies if that’s your real name, but great pen name. I went to that site about 5 times today to forward it on to people. And I don’t even live on the N line.There is a dark brown MUNI shirt with cable car insignia that I could buy at the cable car museum, but it doesn’t have the same… cache. I wonder what a good 30 Stockton shirt would be… “Ask me where I got this live chicken.”

Apologies MUNI fanatics- this is the 10, not the 2 buses mentioned in this article. And isn’t it amazing Stanford got in?

So I’m chatting with a coworker at lunch, who got the nickname ‘The Karate Kid’ because of a certain kicking action and a popped out bus window. He said he didn’t even want to do that- he just wanted to let the bus driver know he was there. His hands were full with groceries, and the bus was stopped at a red light. Note- he is expecting a bill in the mail.

Then, my sister with 2 kids, one sitting on her lap, was on the 30 Stockton heading to Caltrain through Chinatown Saturday, and an elderly woman with a cane tripped over one of sis’ bags in the walkway. that’s right, you already guessed it- nobody helped the elderly, crippled woman get up from the floor of the bus. I guess my sister ended up yelling at a nearby guy to help this lady. Ah, bus stories.

Some friends of mine were in town last night, and we were looking for somewhere to have dinner, so we decided to take the F line down to the Castro and have something tasty there. Naturally, the car was packed when it arrived, but we were able to squeeze on. I ended up standing next to two people who were wondering where they needed to get off (they were going to the Asqew Grill on 16th), and the other person next to me and I let them know. I figured it was just the two of them, and maybe the person across the car who they were talking to.

After we left the stop before theirs, I pulled the cord and told them their stop was next. The man thanked me, stood up, and called “Next stop is ours!”

When the car stopped, nearly everyone got up and walked out the front door. About halfway through I asked them whether they had reservations; they assured me they did. Counting us, about eight people were left on the car after they left.

I mean, look at this! I find bigger things than this in my toilet!

–Dude showing off the microSD card in his phone to a friend of his on the train near school