By Ashley Wright and Jesse Dungan
March 8, 2008
Hybrid buses running through San Francisco’s Bayview-Hunters Point District were removed Thursday to preserve driver and passenger safety, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency officials said Friday.
Vandals have been accessing the bus’s power switch through a panel door on the sides of the hybrid buses running on the 54-Felton, MUNI spokesman Judson True said.
“The safety issue came to our attention and we addressed it in the short term,” True said of pulling the buses.
A long-term solution to the problem may include adding locks to the panel doors, he said. The cost of installing the locks would not be significant, True said.
“Our first priority is making sure that our drivers, customers and vehicles are safe,” he added.
Bus service has not been interrupted and is running regularly.
However, officials said Wednesday that the agency is working on an increased police presence, which will include undercover officers on buses, on the on the 44 O’Shaughnessy and 54-Felton lines running through the Bayview-Hunters Point District due to a jump in violence on the lines.
The decision was made by Municipal Transportation Authority Executive Director Nathaniel Ford in conjunction with the Police Department, according to True.
There have been 10 reported incidents of violence this year, which have varied from operators being assaulted to vehicles being damaged by thrown rocks, True said.
“We have seen an increase in these sorts of attacks over the last two months and we wanted to let all of our stakeholders know we are doing everything we can to keep customers and operators safe,” True said.
Service was temporarily suspended on the 44-O’Shaughnessy and 54-Felton lines earlier in the year due to reported incidents, according to True. He said that service is suspended on a case-by-case basis.
The Hunger Site
March 10, 2008 at 2:24 pm
What fuckin genius put transit vehicles on the street (anywhere, not just in our um troubled neighborhoods) with non-locking controls that can be accessed from the exterior by unauthorized personnel? Controls that can disable the vehicle?!? Zillions of $$ later the inbred assholes slurpin at public trough (MTA, Muni this is 4 u) snivel, we never expected this to happen. In 1906 we had horse shit all over the street, tons of it, and it was less of a problem than the crap we get from our fine public servants.
March 10, 2008 at 9:55 am
I think it’s really more of a design flaw than it is vandalism. Is it really vandalism if all kids are doing is turning the buses off because the designers had the amazing idea to put the on/off switch on the OUTSIDE of the bus?!?!? D’oh!