Every Day I Get In the Queue

Sometimes the people in the carrot business need to remember where their sticks are stored.

Muni drivers have reported over the last couple of weeks that people have been shutting down the power on their buses by flipping a switch that can be accessed easily through an unlocked panel on the outside of the bus. When that happens, the drivers can't accelerate, they lose radio contact with dispatchers and the interior lights on the buses go out.

News of the bus tampering comes as Muni officials are working with police to step up patrols along parts of the 44-O'Shaughnessy and 54-Felton routes, particularly in and around the public housing projects. There, witnesses reported that teenagers and young adults have thrown rocks at the buses, breaking windows and denting the bodies, officials said. A couple of drivers reported being assaulted, although nobody has been seriously injured.

So, local hoodlums aren't fully embracing hybrid public transportation in San Francisco? I'm surprised they haven't deployed the National Guard. Oh, that's right - the only thing more heinous that obscuring the Green Life is anything involving the military.

Perhaps the answer is to replace the easily-foiled busses with a reasonable fleet of paddywagons but, then again, I'm pretty judgmental.