MUNI – 52 Excelsior

Excelsior! I ride this bus sometimes when I go to work from lunch or if I want to go to a park for a walk. I took this bus a few months ago and I must declare the bus can get faster when it is not the super crowded days. The ride itself is super cool because it feels like you are riding an express elevator you go up one street and down another. Most of the time I am the only one on this bus which is even better because I hate it when it gets super noisy on Muni or if the bus drivers have a ballistic attitude. On the 52 I see none of that, most of the time the drivers get bored and just talk with me. Good service overall.

I like how this bus gets me to Forest Hill MUNI Metro Station from Silver and Mission.
3 stars because this route stops at:
— Glen Park BART Station
— Diamond Heights Shopping Center
If you take this route, you may have to wait more than 15 minutes for the next bus if you miss one. That’s the only downer!
This is one of the best routes in the city. Props because some of the drivers are pretty friendly for the most part.
52 Excelsior to Forest Hill Station

Like:
— I live near the end of the line and always get a seat when I board in the morning
Dislike:
— Erratic arrival times; almost as bad as the 54 for Excelsior residents (and sometimes worse)
— Lack of rush-​hour service: If you get to Glen Park BART after 6pm, and you see that the next outbound 52 is coming in 35 minutes, you’re having a relatively good day — today, at 6:15, the next arrival times were 50 and 100 minutes
— The blind corner at Excelsior and Naples: for a while, it seemed like every time the 52 came to that corner, there was a car double-​parked outside Don Chuy’s, preventing us from making the turn
— Only stops on the Forest Hill Station side of Laguna Honda; if you want to connect to an inbound 43 or 44 approaching from behind, you have to specially request that the driver stop on the other side
In theory, I should be a fan of the 52: small, neighborhood route, passing through quiet and overlooked parts of the city. But I’m not.

Guys,
How could anyone possibly give the 52 bus anything more than one star? It should get a zero rating. This route has a totally lousy record. I know — I’ve been riding it every work day for 15 years! The only thing you can count on: if you wait long enough, one of them will show up. Maybe…
Muni has the following priorites: (1) the underground (2) the 38 Geary (3) every other route sucks hind tit.
Many times I’ve waited for the 52 and it just doesn’t show up. I’ve waited 45 minutes to an hour if one of the drivers simply decided not to work that day. Some of the guys I used to ride with have simply given up – they drive to Civic Center and pay 120 bucks for parking. That’s only $ 50 more than my worthless monthly Muni pass. Others take the 44 from Glen Park BART to Tower Market (or whatever it’s called now) and then walk to Diamond Heights. That is not acceptable.
Sorry folks — the 52 sucks.

Still OK except service was cutback and the wait can be 35 to 45 minutes…

Why go to Great America when you can just ride the 52-​Excelsior? It is a combination of a roller coaster and bumper cars and morphs into a flume ride in the rain.
Only in San Francisco would they send a public bus up and down a mountain with cars parked along both sides of narrow streets!!! Each ride is an adventure. And you may even be treated to the bus driver verbally putting a passenger in his place.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

This line is one of the worst in the city. NO WAY this bus comes every 30 minutes. According to nextbus, it’s 57.
If I feel really lazy and tired I might take this bus if I don’t want to walk or get in the sardine can 44. Or I might take it the opposite direction to it’s terminal at Forest Hill.
But WHY for the LOVE of GOD do some runs during the evening commute terminate at the Glen Park BART station?! It makes much more sense to terminate at Mission and Silver, right? Isn’t Mission a main thoroughfare?
But the drivers do have to navigate through some tight streets up in the hills, but still does not justify a rating higher than ONE star.

I give one bus driver 4 stars and his name is Khalid on the 52 line on Sundays. Granted the bus comes every 30 minutes and its a long cold wait at the Glen Park Bart station, but I really enjoy getting on the bus when Khalid is driving.
a) He’s very respectable to the elderly
b) he makes sure everyone sits down and is super friendly
c) and just love his superior and sweet attitude towards people
He is the reason I love the ride.
But muni, I love you because of Khalid