MUNI – 31BX Balboa ‘B’ Express

I use the 31BX for my end of workday beginning of night school commute only. This bus is ALWAYS late from Davis and Pine for the 4:24pm departure time, while the earlier 4:05pm bus almost always leaves it’s stop early – making it ridiculous to try and time when to even be out at the stop. While I’m sure people are just going home at this time of day, I am using it for a weekly 4:45pm class. With this unreliable bus departure schedule I basically need to leave downtown an hour early to get to a place that is only 15 – 20 mins away otherwise. Muni really needs to change the departure time if they cannot be consistent. I depend on this bus and would rather not use a taxi service which would end up costing me way too much. When I call 311 to see what’s going on, they have no clue or say that someone is taking a break so it’s going to be late. But this happens a lot! Public transportation needs to step up its game here.

K, I never thought I would rate a bus line BUT I’VE FALLEN IN LOVE WITH THE 31BX. It’s saved my commute time going home by 25−30% (about 10 – 15 minutes).
I will never take this bus in the morning. It’s too packed. HOWEVER, I do take this home. Seems to always be standing room but I will say that it never comes at a consistent time — either way, even if I wait, it’s faster than the normal bus.

I wish I could rate different times of the morning differently. If I leave between 7 – 7:30 am in the morning, the 31BX is great. Due to a change in my work schedule I’ve been taking it between 8 – 8:30 am every day for a month. At best, it’s standing-​room-​only at 4^th avenue, and for the 3^rd day in a row I was forced to take the regular 31 because I couldn’t even get on. There are EIGHT stops after 4^th avenue. Muni, listen up: you need to add some more express buses during peak hours.
The regular 31 (and the 5, and the 38…) smells like a dive-​bar bathroom, is chock full of crazy, and it can take a full hour to get to Beale street from 4^th Ave. By the time I get to work, I smell like a gin-​filled ashtray. Is this really my best public transit option?
Note: I’m not hating on the drivers here, just the schedule. Most of the drivers are delightful and polite.

The morning bus drivers are fine, but the afternoon bus drivers are mostly mental. They often refuse to make all stops when the bus becomes a local in the avenues. It’s only an express for part of the route, but the drivers seem to think they can pick and choose when they stop when the bus becomes a local.

The AX and BX buses are really confusing. Needlessly so. I love public transportation and take pride in the fact that I knew exactly what each of the normal 38s (and the 38L) did and how to get to my brother’s old house in the Outer Richmond on any of those buses, but this AX-​BX thing is stupid.
When I had an internship in Oakland and grad-​school classes at night at USF, I used to catch this bus in the Financial District and get dropped off as close as possible to Lone Mountain. It does serve its purpose, and I do love that it doesn’t pick up or drop off anyone for what seems like miles and miles and miles. But when it gets to the end of that express portion, it makes up for its former speediness with some ridiculously long stops.
OK, maybe it deserves four stars, but I’m keeping it at three because the Financial District regulars are really mean.
Yes, I realize that the general rule is that people who have been waiting longer should get to board the bus first, but no, there really is no line, and I don’t feel bad at all for «ruining my [the angry guy in the gray suit’s] entire day, you fat idiot.» Honestly, I got called a fat idiot in public by a guy who had to endure the horror – the horror! – of standing on the bus exactly seven inches in front of where I was standing. Neither one of us got a seat, and I do believe that all the seats were taken by the time either of us had actually boarded the bus.

The morning drivers are awesome and the afternoon drivers on are crack. However this line rules… my morning commute is usually no longer than 30 minutes and it’s always fun trying to elbow and fight grown ass men onto the bus.

Still the best way to get to work, but is it just me, or has the route really been falling off in the morning lately? I waited through 2 cycles this morning with no bus.

On time, kinda.
It’s a decent bus. I can actually close my eyes and not expect to open them with some crazy up in my face. It is kinda weird taking the same bus with the same people everyday not knowing who they are. You do get to know people in another way…
–there are the ones who just dig their face in a book, not looking up even once the whole ride
–some women challenge themselves putting some make-​up pencil so close to their eyes while the bus is bumping and swaying
–every once in while old bus buddies get into a really good conversation and talk about nothing but their dogs
–ever see a guy put own his ‘first’ dinner on the bus?
— you get that girl who always goes shopping or gets things shipped to her office so she gets on the bus and takes up 3 seats in the back
Then there’s me… what every MUNI rider should be…

I’m so happy I found this bus. It’s cut my commute down by 20 minutes. I still can’t seem to figure out the timing, though. I leave my house at the same time and sometimes I catch a bus, other times I have to wait 15 minutes. I’m only the 5^th stop, so it can’t just be me.

So easy to hop on and ride downtown. And so easy to take back to the Richmond. However, imagine my surprise when one morning during the week between Christmas and New Years, whereupon there were never any more than 15 folks onboard, that the BX stopped mid route. Apparently, a guy had gotten on, not recognizing the incredible efficiency of the bus, in that it makes no stops, and had to plead with the driver to let him off mid way down Bush. He couldn’t wait to just hop off at the pleasant bus ladie’s bus voice alerting us all that we had arrived at «Bush and Sansome.»