Part of my job these days is to think about user experience: what can be done to make the experience as easy as possible and how can barriers be removed. This line of thought is not one that has taken hold down at the MUNI mothership. Today, on my lunch-break, I went up to Market St. to fetch some RAM from a store. Since it was nice out, I walked there. But, with my lunch-hour slipping away, I decided to catch MUNI back to the office. Big mistake.

I entered the Montgomery station and looked for the change machines to break my $5. Guess what? MUNI doesn't have any change machines. BART does, but they only change $10s and $20s, not $5s. So I went to the agent window and tried to buy a ticket. Nope, wasn't gonna happen. The harpy behind the glass told me that if I wanted change, I would have to leave the station, find a store and buy something or beg for change from them, and return to the station.

Whatever. I needed some lunch to take back to the office anyway, so I went upstairs and went to Specialty's and got a turkey sandwich and some change and went back to the station. When I tried to give the booth-harpy a dollar and two quarters, she dismissed me yet again, and told me that MUNI didn't accept paper money at all, and I would have to go use the BART ticket machine to make change for a dollar.

WHAT THE FUCK????

It would have been a lot simpler if the harpy just said what was clearly evident: "FUCK OFF. MUNI DON'T NEED NO STEENKENG PASSENGERS!" So... I finally get into the station and go wait for the right train. But it seems all the trains do not stop in the same place within the station. Some stop at the front, some stop at the back. No signs about it, it's just up to you to notice where any train you might want to be on is stopping. Luckily I figured this out just before the N train I wanted to be on closed its doors.

End of story, right? No... after going two stops, at the Folsom St. stop, about four from the end, the train driver comes on the PA to announce that we must all get off the train, he is turning around early. Not to worry, another train is right behind.... So we all de-train, wait for the next one and get on, hoping that would be the end of it. Unfortunately, one last insult- we pulled out of the Folsom St. station and then had to stop and wait for five minutes while the train we were previously on turned around and switched tracks.

I used MUNI a hell of a lot more when I actually lived in SF, and never really experienced the full-on hatred it engendered today. I really felt as if there was a new MUNI campaign to actively enrage and discourage MUNI riders. I hear daily complaints from co-workers about their hellish commutes on MUNI. After my experiences today, it's clear that MUNI is teetering on the brink of destruction. Between cut routes, diminished service, and raised fares, cabs are a much more attractive option for getting around SF. I don't expect the world from MUNI, but I do expect to be able to enter a station and get on a goddamned train when I am holding more than sufficient cash in my pocket to pay the fare.