MUNI – 5 Fulton

I was boarding the 5R bus at Divisadero and McAllister streets to return to work after a medical appointment. The driver with the cap number 5529 and run 37 did a great job handling the lady boarding the bus in a wheelchair. Another driver had also boarded and alerted the driver that another wheelchair was boarding. I had walked to the rear of the bus and I saw several teens standing in the space and told they would need to move because a wheelchair was boarding they did not. Then the lady in the wheelchair accused the driver of being lazy and just wanting to just drive. She said she was going to report him. I’m writing this review because she is going to lie on this driver. I’m not going to let that happen when he did nothing wrong. Driving Muni is a hard and difficult job and my mom has been driving for over three decades and I’m not going to let someone lie on a muni driver just because they want to be mean. I will be calling Muni directly after this post.

Bus driver 3270 made my day! Very friendly and kind and so attentive to his passengers. Had a full bus and still was aware enough to meet all of his passengers needs. Also so helpful in helping my husband and I plan our day and route. His motto was niceness begets niceness! So true! I worked for public transit over 6 years in admin and we treasure drivers like him!

ah yes the good ol #5. I mjust say this bus is less noise when it goes past SFCH. Took this bus with a few friends from San Mateo county and I must say I liked it better because there no crowding willy nilly. It is a great bus on a street that is easy to follow no matter where you go. The crew on this bus is nicer because they are less pressured unlike the Chinatown lines. This bus can be super delay if you miss it. You do not need to worry so much when riding it for any reason.

My strongest memory of this bus is that time a homeless guy on meth told me in detail how he would rape me. Fortunately, the bus was really crowded so I felt safe physically, but unfortunately the fact that nobody made any attempt to even side-​eye him or give me a sympathetic look made me lose faith in humanity.
While that has only happened to me on this bus once (knock on wood), it smells ratchet pretty much all the time. It can also get insanely crowded during morning and afternoon rush. The frequency is pretty good, which makes me feel generous enough to give it two stars.

It’s time to get all roly-​poly, folks, to gets as downright pill-​buggy as possible, people, because the 5-​Fulton is now the bus line it has always wanted to be, the bus line of the people, by the people, for the people. The 5-​Fulton now whisks its denizens to their homes more quickly, and it uses the new-​new hybrid buses, at least for the time being.
I’m slightly disturbed by the mild confusion and not-​so-​mild socioeconomic segregation that the 5-​Fulton/​5L-​Fulton Limited split has caused, but in a few months, everyone will know which bus she needs to ride, and at that point, everyone will be happier. There won’t the harrumphing at EVERY SINGLE BLOCK between Gough and Fillmore, and the Outer Richmondites will become less impatient with their Western Addition fellow travelers. Everyone’s just trying to get home, and that’s why the new and improved 5 is so special.
They’ve eliminated loads of redundant stops, and while I disagree with at least one and maybe more of them (Baker really does need a stop for all the old folks who live in those two buildings), everything can and probably will be forgiven. They’re also moving existing bus stops to more intuitive, easier-​access locations, and the ones they’ve completed already work really well.
So call me a fan in the faithful, most wonderful sense. The improved 5 and the new 5L make me wish wish wish for a 21L-​Hayes Limited, and while I don’t see that coming anytime soon, I can ignore the street signs for a while, get my exercise, and fall in love again with waiting at the bus stop on McAllister and Divis.

Apparently they switched up the bus stops. Posted n it’s been like that for 2 months?! Uh, bus driver #8155. It’s not my normal route. Geesh. What’s got her panties in a bunch. Dont need to get mad at me juat bc I didn’t know. Couldve said it nicer. Attitude!

Love muni. Always something to see, hear or smell… not always good and sometimes you smell it before you see or hear it, but still all the drivers have been nice and the buses have been on time.

If you live in SOMA (or elsewhere near Market), and are heading to Superior Court (hopefully for work rather than someone having sued you) or to UC Hastings, the 5 is the way to go. Much more convenient than BART or walking, and far cheaper than a cab ride ($ 2 vs. $ 10 – 12).
The 5 can definitely back up in the afternoon as you head home and you end up waiting for 15 minutes and then being greeted by 3 buses in a row, but overall it’s a good ride.

I just got back tired from a trip to Yosemite around 11pm tonight. I got on the bus grumpy tired, payed with my pass and sat down by the front. It was incredible to see Linda, the driver, take the time still at that hour to explain stops with their connections, compliment new customers, see how an elderly man acknowledge that he hadn’t seen her in a while (which means he likes her service), be courteous and polite to all customers, while maintaining her sense of humor. This lady is doing her job so well, I had to go up before my stop to recognize her attention to detail. She said that’s my job very matter of fact. While this may be true, it is about her attitude about service towards all the clients on that muni bus that deserves these stars and more. She opened the door, and handed me a lollipop. Thank you Muni for hiring such a thoughtful person.

My ride home from work on most days. For $ 2 I can’t complain. A cab ride normally costs me at least $ 25 with tip from Downtown to Outer Richmond. I did wish there was an Express or Limited line for the 5 Fulton, but I guess you can’t have everything.

When you hop on think, «Sticky Fingers»

3 stars for the 5 Fulton because
— it takes me to and from Downtown and Ocean Beach
— buses on this route are frequent — always a good thing
Outer Richmond District zip code — 94 121
94 122 is a zip code for the Sunset District
FYI:
This route makes stops at:
— University of California, Hastings Law School
— Superior Court of San Francisco — Civic Center Courthouse
— California Public Utilities Commission
— City Hall
— University of San Francisco
Now with service on this route provided by motor coach Monday — Friday, it’s sure a relief for passengers and operators.

Pretty sweet.
It goes along Fulton from the Outer Richmond area and McAllister to Market (roughly) and then Downtown. The 5 comes frequently and only sometimes doesn’t have room for you.
I have seen some weird $#*! go down, but hey — it’s a SF bus, just go along for the ride.

Man, I’m not sure if the 5 Fulton cut their service in half or if the Outer Richmond has welcomed a slew of new residents recently, but this MUNI line is really taking a beating. It’s always overcrowded, the drivers are quick to pick fights with riders, and if you’re trying to catch the bus at 8:00am anywhere in the NOPA area, every bus passes you by without stopping due to being far beyond the legal capacity. It’s actually faster to walk to SOMA from this part of town than it is to wait the 7 – 10 minutes for the next bus to arrive, only to be shunned once it hits your stop.
In short, the 5 Fulton is dead to me.

I am confused about the oft-​mentioned ballerinas. Are people hallucinating ballerinas on the 5? It’s pretty clear drug use is happening here — I was on this bus for ten minutes today, and my hair has smelled like weed ever since.
People openly smoking pot on the bus isn’t an everyday occurrence. However, it does speak to the fact that this line is often too crowded for the driver to be paying much attention to the folks in the back. I have to stand about half the time on weekdays, whether it’s 11 AM or 7 PM, and it’s always crowded on weekends. This makes sense, given that it’s a well-​traveled route that doesn’t run super-​frequently. I don’t know how often it’s supposed to come, but I’ve seen predictions up to 20 minutes.
On the upside, I have never seen a physical fight break out (hello, 22 Fillmore) or a large knife fall out of a person’s pant leg (38 Geary). Nonetheless, I’d recommend trekking a few blocks down to the 21 Hayes if you can.

2.5 stars, rounded down.
The 5 is quickly becoming one of my least favorite MUNI lines in the City. If you’re going outbound, the stretch from Ocean Beach to about Stanyan is tolerable, but once you go past Stanyan, any positive thoughts that you might have about taking the bus, being green, etc. flies out the window because 1) the extreme crowdedness makes it incredibly unpleasant; 2) the extreme slowness tests even the most patient person; and 3) people’s behavior will drive you up a wall.
The first two annoyances are self-​explanatory, but the third one requires some clarity. For some unexplainable reason, even when the bus is very crowded, the commuters on this bus enjoy standing right in front of the precious few empty seats and NOT sit down. So basically, they’re not only taking up even more room in the already-​clusterfucky bus but also preventing other people from accessing those rare empty seats. Sit the eff down, please. I see this happening way too often for it to be just an exception!
The only positive thing I can say is that the bus is alright late at night, when there’s no people on it (hence, there’s no idiotic behavior/​people to hate on), and it’s significantly faster. But during any other time of the day, especially during the weekdays, it’s such an unpleasant experience, that you should avoid it if you can. And if you can’t, well, then plug in some earphones and good luck, fellow sufferers. I’m right there with you.

With the recent service cuts, things just don’t get much better. I would love to make myself a fan for this line. I love how it gets me straight to City Hall and literally across the street from it. I love how it takes me to places afar like Ocean Beach and all the way down to the Transbay Terminal. It has a great route with some rougher parts between Market/​Powell and the Tenderloin area and again in the Fillmore section, but overall a great line that serves a lot of people.
However, it is far from perfect and my experience with this line is that sometimes it doesn’t come on time and when the buses do come, they come all at once. Most recently, a nice bus driver lady was trying to do the right thing and asked a group of passengers that walked onto the bus without paying to pay. They threw a fit with her and started cussing her out and calling her names. I’ve never seen people that angry who were clearly wrong themselves! There’s a bit of drama sometimes on the MUNI 5, but then again, it isn’t a MUNI if there isn’t any drama.

Depressed because they cancelled Law and Order? Failing to live your potential as a social worker/​psychologist? Fear not, because one ride on the 5 Fulton will crush all your benevolent intentions within 5 minutes during peak hours.
You can channel your inner therapist skills on the crack addicts comparing stories of OD’ing and being comatose for 5 days at SF General… or the pregnant 15-​year-​old screaming at her pimp on her cell. Actually, the City could save money by consolidating their inpatient services with public transit because every other passenger on the 5 either has been or should be referred for psychiatric intake and a 5150.
And that was just Monday morning’s entertainment… never a dull moment!

Nothing is more frustrating then sitting and waiting to go downtown in the morning for work and seeing 2 – 3 5’s in a row repeatedly heading to the beach. WHY? They are all practically empty. MUNI, the 5 is your budget crisis. Ever since they cut the 21 at Arguello the 5 has been a miserable part of my morning routine. That sucker is almost always packed from travelling 45 BLOCKS! They should re-​route the line so they can use double buses like the 38; it’s obviously necessary. Don’t even get me started on headed home after work, talk about multiple buses passing you sardined.

I don’t live in the Richmond or NOPA or Alamo Square or Crack Alley, but I’ve taken the 5 Fulton many times since it’s the only line that drops me in front of my doctor’s office for non-​Emergency visits like the flu or anal leakage.
Recently I saw my personal Hippocrates to eliminate a very large cystic zit on my right cheek. I guess this makes me superficial like the rest of you nasty fucking bitches.
Yes, YOUUUU! That’s right, I DIDN’T RETURN TO KISS YOUR ASS! I’M NOT HERE TO MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD ABOUT YOURSELF, NU-​UHH — come to think of it, I’m not here to make me feel good about myself.
Anyway, this zit was a) painful, like douching with bleach and b) looked even MORE obvious since it was discolored and the only zit on my cheek, and I seriously contemplated perforating my face with a fork so said cystic zit wouldn’t, ummmmm, stand out so much.
Now, if you thought a month-​long prescription of tetracyclines or La Prairie concealer would fix it, you’d be dead wrong. No, MY DOCTOR INJECTED THE FUCKER WITH A CORTICOSTEROID THAT LOOKED LIKE SEMEN! And if that wasn’t bad enough, the zit actually DOUBLED in size and was BANDAGED.
So I left, shades in full effect, feeling even uglier than I did before I visited since I now had a LARGER FUCKING LUMP on my face AND a bandage on it to make it even more conspicuous.
Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait 10 minutes for the next 5 Fulton like I usually do.
I took an aisle seat at the back, facing the last row of seats occupied by a man who looked like Joe The Plumber, only less Neo-​Nazi in appearance and more of a bearded garden-​variety ass-​crack pipe cleaner. At Divisadero, a pale woman stumbled towards the back and sat next to Joe The Plumber, facing me. Clearly under the influence of some substances (I guessed psychedelics), she had long wavy black hair and mirrored aviators — she had the demeanor of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark and the drug habits of Janis Joplin. Basically, a Goth Hippie. She screamed «Okay Sistah, come back HEAAAA!» to her cracked-​out pock marked friend in skintight black acid wash jeans and a weathered Billy Joel t-​shirt. Let’s call her Whitney.
I sat there, watching Elvira and Whitney make passes at Joe The Plumber, cackle uncontrollably, and call folks on Elvira’s KRZR. «Stay calm, Darin» I said to myself. «Don’t engage.» See, fucking crazy people, they like talking to me for some reason, it always happens, the druggies are ESPECIALLY drawn to me – I don’t know why, I mean I haven’t done hard drugs since OH-​HO, YOU ALMOST GOT ME THERE! — but frankly with my broke-​ass Coyote Ugly face I had no interest in making small talk with rock smokers so I turned up the music on my iPhone.
When the bus stopped in the ‘loin, Elvira and Whitney got up – «almost there, Darin,» I thought, «they’re getting off» — and as they were leaving Elvira waved at me, I took out an earphone, she bent over and whispered
«I like your SSSSHHHIRRRTT.»
Then Whitney passed, she placed her hand on my shoulder, squeezed it, and singsonged
«And *I*, I like your hairrrrrr! You so hawwwwt!»
And they both disembarked, giggling like schoolgirls.
A $ 1.50 fare made me a sex object in the crack whore community and provided a lesson in urban sociology. Three stars!