My Robot Is Pregnant theme song!

May 31, 2007

10 Comments

1. What’s your beef with the Muni?

   Comment by Lyle_s — May 31, 2007 @ 7:28 pm

2. America promises you freedom of speech but the government doesn’t have to listen. The advertisement above, a collaborative effort between John Flournoy, Evie Parrot, Sean MacDonald, and myself, is an attempt to get heard! Perhaps shaming the Muni public bus system of San Francisco into finally providing adequate service to all neighborhoods.

   This ad is factual. It is common knowledge among bicyclists that you will catch and pass many buses on your ride across town. San Francisco, with terrifying hills, is not an easy place to bicycle. It’s not an option for the entire population. It’s not an option for healthy people who are on their way to work and don’t want to arrive wet with sweat. The bus is not an alternative.

   Why not? San Francisco is 7 miles long, 7 miles wide. It’s not a far flung empire that needs complicated solutions. It needs the local government to spend more on public transportation. It needs the federal government to spend more on public transportation.

   New York has a great subway system, because a large portion was funded by the feds. A pro-capitolist series of presidents has eroded federal funding for such projects to the point where it is no longer possible. Where are the churches President Bush has called on to replace this spending?

   It appears to be up to the market to create public transportation. Let me tell you a dirty little secret about how the free market has already damaged S.F.’s transport system. There were plans under way years ago for light rail and underground systems, when General Motors offered a deal on buses (GM doesn’t make trains and subways) and now we are locked into an inadequate network of bus lines that share the same space with cars, trucks, and bicyclists.

   In the end, San Franciscans have been failed by everyone in charge, whether pro-market or pro-government. That’s what this message is for. To let them know they’ve failed us. To let them know we want better service. 90% of the time our voices aren’t heard as citizens. But if this shame tactic is one of the 10% that affects change, freedom of speech is still (barely) alive.

   Comment by jon — June 1, 2007 @ 6:44 am

3. I’ll come back with some more facts about the GM deal, I’m pulling facts not quite out of my ass, but my memory, which is located a scant few feet away.

   Comment by jon — June 1, 2007 @ 6:47 am

4. that’s really funny!!

   Comment by marc — June 1, 2007 @ 9:36 am

5. Whatcha doing up at 6 in the morning responding to comments with such seriousness? Have You been staying awake nights just so You could type in “Well…i’m glad You asked… Lyle” as soon as one’s in?

   Comment by Evie Parrot, apparently — June 1, 2007 @ 6:10 pm

6. So San Francisco, which must take a king’s ransom in property taxes each year, can’t get enough bus routes together to cover 49 square miles? That’s pretty weak. What do you need, like 10 buses to cover that area?

   Federal transportation funding is kind of a fucked up thing. The big money lies in completely new transportation projects. For example, in Milwaukee we can’t get a single dime from the feds to upgrade our bus lines but we’ve got a 91 million dollar grant sitting around that can only be applied to ‘new’ transportation developments. So, we waste our time proposing ridiculous light rail options for the city that make no sense and should never pass, while our bus lines become more outdated and inadequate.

   At least the market can get things done. Still, you have to have some money to have a voice in the market…

   Comment by Lyle_s — June 1, 2007 @ 7:44 pm

7. I have my own beefs with transportation in the whole bay area. Why doesn’t bart run after midnight? Why don’t the buses run all night? And why do the buses on one street always show up one right after another and then not one for an hour? I think my wife and I will move back to the bay area, maybe.
   And Lyle lives in Milwaukee?

   Comment by Al — June 2, 2007 @ 10:44 am

8. bart sucks too.

   Comment by sean — June 2, 2007 @ 5:50 pm

9. Evie, 6 am is not that early to people who work.

   Comment by Rolston — June 5, 2007 @ 8:11 pm

10. This may be the most brilliant thing i’ve seen all day, damn all week, or even months. you son’s of bitches are fabulous

    Comment by Linday — June 8, 2007 @ 9:04 pm

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