This morning’s commute featured a not-unusual inbound delay at Van Ness on the Muni Metro lines. For the N-Judah and J-Church commuters, this meant sitting above ground at Duboce and Church for several minutes. Our train operator was kind enough to warn us of the delay via PA system (something which, admittedly, they don’t always do) but it didn’t really assuage the pervasive grumbles of the “Ugh fuck Muni,” “Muni sucks” variety.

I hear these grumbles often at Duboce & Church, either waiting to get into the tunnel, or often when the N-Judah will spontaneously become the J-Church at Duboce and make a right turn toward Balboa Park leaving a horde of angry commuters stranded in a grumbling, aimless mass around Church and Market. (Why they do this at rush hour only the transit planners know; it seems pretty fucking stupid at the time, but maybe it makes sense in the grand scheme.)

In the latter case, people usually bail out at Duboce and walk around confused for a few minutes. Some wait for the next N (usually 7-10 minutes), some savvy regulars hop the inbound J on Church if it happens to be passing, but most walk to Market and Church and wait for the F-Market. This befuddles me. Firstly, why do they exit the train at Duboce? If they stay on the train one more stop, they have a free ride to Church and Market, AND the Church Street metro station. I am continually bemused at how many people wait for a slow, one-car F streetcar (and then complain angrily when it’s full and late) while they are standing ON TOP OF the inbound tunnel. Do they just not realize that underneath their feet there are THREE train lines going downtown? Train lines that don’t have to compete with traffic and have twice the passenger capacity?

This morning’s case was an inbound delay at Van Ness, so going underground at Church wasn’t more helpful than just waiting for the N to enter the tunnel. So, most people elected to wait and grumble. Figuring the delay would be about equal to above-ground travel time to Van Ness, I hopped the arriving F-Market to Gough, got myself an espresso and a pastry at DeLessio on Market & Gough, and was back underground at Van Ness station right about the time my original N-Judah train pulled in. If you can’t speed the inevitable commute delays in the 8-o’clock hour, you might as well inject a little quality of life into it, rather than just getting yourself all bitchy and angry first thing. Tens of thousands of people need to be downtown at the same time you do; this happens in every city in the world. Commute delays at rush hour are no more Muni’s fault than they are yours for having an office job in the CBD, feel me? The Church & Market example above leads me to believe many people are undertaking Muni without a basic working knowledge of routes and schedules. This isn’t Muni’s fault either.

I wonder if people just don’t think of alternatives when they hit a snag? Or don’t know them? Granted, an internet-enabled mobile phone helps with on-the-fly logistics planning a great deal since the advent of NextBus on all SF Muni lines, but even without it, you always have options. (And do not try to play like most San Franciscans who travel at rush hour aren’t packing a BlackBerry or similar. For the iPhone, there are fancy applications like Routesy which will even locate your nearest stop, although I prefer the precision and autonomy of NextMuni.com’s mobile site.) Even if you’re not internet-enabled on the go, plenty of people are and most fellow riders are frundamentally friendly and willing to exchange pleasantries and/or information, even if they seem terse. If you’re feeling shy or antisocial, remember the metaphysical laws of the SF Municipal Railway: you’re never more than four or five blocks from another line, and it’s always faster to start walking than to stand there and wait.

If I taught a class in the Tao of Muni, like the Bike Coalition intro class, would people take it?