Muni Diaries

When he was a kid, SF Chronicle writer Peter Hartlaub would take public transit to San Francisco 49ers football games at Candlestick Park with his dad. Years later, Peter discovered his own "transit utopia" aboard the 77X-Candlestick Express to the stadium. That bus was filled with the rowdiest, most colorful, most loyal and dedicated football fans this city has possibly ever known. Now Candlestick and the 77X are memories—gone, but clearly not forgotten.

Writer Justina Wu is the producer of Beyond Borders Storytelling, a series of bi-monthly workshops and story jams for travel adventurers in San Francisco. In this week's story, Justina tells us about how one Muni driver really took charge of a crazy situation.

Recent Aussie transplant, cartoonist, and writer Sarah Hunt tells the story of what it's like to arrive in a strange, new land that mirrored the one she grew up watching in movies and TV. It has to be a good thing for those of us who've been here a minute to see San Francisco, BART, and the Mission through Sarah's fresh, loving eyes. Hear about all those things we take for granted as Sarah experienced them for the first time.

Comedian Cara Tramontano is a model Muni rider. One day she meets Edison, the world's most enthusiastic bus driver who is doing this job for a very quirky reason.

For SF native Klee Wiggins, Muni isn't all that bad. After all, if not for Muni, she might not be here to share her comedy with the world. Her origin story starts in the '70s, when, as Klee describes it, Muni was a "mafia of sorts." Stories in her early San Francisco life are tied intimately to various bus lines, including some that no longer exist.

San Francisco comedian Kristee Ono comes clean about how she finally learned to take Muni. An unfortunate incident involving chapped lips and a DUI helped her find her own Muni community.

You can see a video of this story and other episode extras on MuniDiaries.com/podcast. Submit your own stories at MuniDiaries.com.

On this week's episode, we bring you Tarin Towers, a writer and longtime San Francisco resident. She's been riding Muni since 1995; in fact, she used to take the 22-Fillmore to her graveyard shift in the Japantown Denny's. Remember that place?

On a bus ride during the first dot-com wave, she encountered someone whose casual nod was hardly the end of the exchange.

This story was recorded at Muni Diaries Live on April 18, 2015, at the Elbo Room in San Francisco.

San Francisco writer Beth Spotswood tells the tale of how a group of Muni riders banded together during a slight bus malfunction. With the help of a good friend and her phone's audio-recording app, Beth became a Muni pro during the course of one commute home.

BART operator Kelly Beardsley has had many odd jobs in his life, but driving a BART train is probably the quirkiest of them all. And sometimes being a BART operator means you have to deal with some very human elements of life. In this episode, Kelly tells a story about a disturbing and hilarious behind-the-scenes tale from the driver's seat.

Wonder Dave is the cohost of Seduction Feroce, Story Showdown, and Tourettes Without Regrets. In this week's episode, Wonder Dave shares a story of how he uses his Muni time to keep the flame hot with his long-distance boyfriend. This story was recorded at Muni Diaries Live in San Francisco on April 16, 2016. For episode extras, go to MuniDiaries.com/podcast.