»These are the people that you meet ...

Woke up unexpectedly early this morning, read Wodehouse through several hours of the pitch-dark morning, and then walked down to Cooper's for an espresso just as the sun was rising.

At 7.31, I jumped on a commuter-laden N-Judah. Riding MUNI always makes me feel like a pleasant little cog in a great big city (not this, a!). I rode the Breda LRV to the terminus, at China Basin, and then walked across the street to the 8.07 Caltrain southbound. Exiting ditto, I ran into Clint, whose band just recorded their second album.

The commute made me reflect on things I dislike about MUNI and Caltrain. I don't know that it's fair to lump them together, but I'll start with that.

1. MUNI runs aboveground. Without right-of-way, moving down the Embarcadero between PacBell Park and the terminus is at a snail's pace.

2. MUNI doesn't offer fareboxes in each car: one must enter at the first car to pay cash (or with a token).

3. The connection between MUNI and Caltrain is broken by a street-level crossing.

4. MUNI doesn't allow bicycles on board the LRV carriages.

5. MUNI doesn't have signboards with expected wait times (although it does have the pleasing "ding * ding Two-car-J-outbound-in-three-minutes" stacatto voice announcement at some underground stations).