Bus Report #243

The other day I had an appointment at my favorite building downtown, the Aztec Building (AKA 450 Sutter).
Afterwards, I made my way down to Sansome to catch the 10 Townsend.
The bus came and I got on, asking the driver if the bus would go all the way to the last stop.
She said, "All 10 Townsends go all the way to De Haro."
I didn't argue, even though recent reports from other riders dispute this statement.
I went to the back of the bus and ate my cranberry muffin.
MUNI recently re-routed the 10 and I was curious to see the new route. Some changes make sense, like stopping in front of the Citi Center, but I was not thrilled with the totally useless new loop the bus does down 2nd Street.
On 2nd, a man and a woman got on, with a baby stroller full of bungee-wrapped boxes. They took their sweet time getting on, and then they did not have adequate bus fare.
The driver said, "Why are you on this bus when you know you don't have your fare?"
The guy gave her some sort of lame answer. She repeated her question.
"We're just going a couple of blocks," the man said.
"I'm not moving until you pay your fare or get out," she said.
A man in the back of the bus decided he needed to get involved.
"Come, on man, pay your fucking fare, we gotta get to work!" he shouted.
The guy in the front of the bus told him to go fuck himself.
The driver pulled the bus over.
The man in the back of the bus said, "It's not free to ride the bus, man."
To which the guy in the front replied, "fuck the bus."
The driver put the fare dodger and his lady friend off the bus, saying: "You get what you give," as we all watched them leave.
Kudos to her. People are idiots, and the bus is not free for the rest of us.

Everyone was nice to her for the rest of the ride.

This morning, I waited at the bus stop with Nicolai.
"I can't seem to get up on time," he said. "it's been 10 days since I made this bus."
I told him I knew how it was.
Our smiley bus driver pulled up right in front of us. Nicolai let me get on first.
The driver said hello and good morning. Her smile is so wide it cuts her face in half, but it's nice.

At Fillmore, it was like attack of the rude people.
I was about to board the bus when the talking-to-himself guy cut right in front of me. I was taken aback and let him get on, only to then have another rude guy cut right in front of me.
What is wrong with people? If the 38 Geary riders can be polite, why can't the early morning 22 Fillmore riders be polite?
The commuters even 10 minutes later, like the dreadlocked dental technician, are so nice.
It's a mystery.