Pretty Girls Ride The Bus In San Francisco

In The Bay Area, if you want to get into San Francisco you have many travel options. There’s the freeways and bridges for driving, the BART (subway), the bus, the ferry, and Caltrain (commuter rail). Living on The Peninsula, I took the latter.

As much as I complained about my commuter train journey into the city everyday, the actual experience wasn’t that bad. I always got a seat to myself, the scenery was pleasant (hills, water, fog, and sunrises), I could drink coffee and eat my breakfast (Cliff Bar and string cheese), and it was a smooth 35 minute ride up the Bay. I think it was the whole “familiarity breeds contempt” thing that got to me, the repetition and seeing the same people everyday and that damn walk up 4th Street with all the herd of commuters.

But now that I live in the city and do not own a car, from my neighborhood I only have one option of getting to and from work- the bus.

I have always hated riding the bus.

For all the years I lived in Boston, I rarely rode the bus within the city. If I couldn’t get there by The T (subway) or on foot, I took a cab or else didn’t go to that destination. Busses were smelly- both of exhaust and the rift-raft of society, I hated waiting around for them to show, and the constant stopping and starting within traffic drove me crazy. In fact, when I was at BU and I had to go to Cambridge, I still took The T. Even though the quickest way there was the bus that simply crossed the river. But instead I would ride the Green Line all the way down Commonwealth Ave and underground to Park Street and then onto the Red Line and back up The Charles River. Adding 30 minutes was a good tradeoff from staying away from a bus.

When I lived in Los Angeles, there was about a six month period when I found myself without a car. Luckily for me there was the new underground Red Line that zipped me from Hollywood to downtown (where I worked) in about fifteen minutes. But there were many places the Los Angeles subway did not go, and occasionally I would take the bus.

There is nothing sadder than a screenwriter hopeful waiting on Sunset Boulevard for a bus that isn’t showing while Mercedes, Porches and Limos whiz on past him on their way to (what I always envisioned) million dollar deals. And while you were waiting for that stinking bus, inevitably a gorgeous girl in a convertible would stop at a red light next to you. Every second you lingered in the perfectly sunny afternoon, you could not help but to try to figure out what had went wrong with your life.

And the actual LA bus ride was a dreadful experience. Ten times smellier than Boston, with 50% more homeless people, and triple the stops and starts and traffic. There came a point when I could no longer stand it. I remember the exact moment when I said "no more" to LA busses. It was the day a lovely gentleman whipped out his Johnson and urinated while we headed down Wilshire Boulevard. I, along with most of the passengers, got off on the next stop.

But in San Francisco, I’ve had to hop back on.

I still hate waiting for the bus on the street corner. And I loathe being packed inside the crowded vehicle, trying desperately to hold onto the rail as we careen around the city. But luckily some things have changed.

In SF there are electric and low emission busses that eliminate most of the exhaust smell. And while I cannot say there are no dregs of society riding next to me, the percentage is much lower than LA. I’m also discovering which lines to take (#2 Clement- mostly students, elderly, and business people) and which to avoid (#38 Geary- too many winos). There also isn’t a stigma attached to taking the bus in San Francisco.

In LA, you were probably only taking the bus if you were poor or had lost your license from a DUI. And I never once saw a pretty girl get on board. In fact there were plenty of times when I was certain I was the only person there who was not wanted by the police. But here a wide selection of the masses rides the bus. And every morning at least a few beautiful women sit along side of me as we travel up and down the hills of San Francisco.