The public transportation system in San Francisco offers both above-ground (trolley-type trains) and underground subway-type trains. The one that I take every day, the MUNI, goes above ground and below ground (it's kinda like the Green line in Boston). If you board outside, then you don't really have to pay. In fact, the only way to pay is to get on the first car and it's usually a pain n the a$$.
Well, I've been riding the train to work for a few months now and I quickly recognized that it's pointless to pay when you board outside. Still, more often than not, I gether up my coins and pay my fare in the morning and then get a "transfer" (which is basically a ticket that serves as both a receipt and lets you ride any bus/train for the next 2 hours). I've even purchased a monthly pass but I think I missed the 2 hour window you have to buy them earlier in the month... or I just decided not to wait in the 50-person line to buy one. I can't remember why I didn't get one this month.
Earlier this week, I was waiting for the train but of course it was late. So I walked over to Muddy Waters for a coffee. Yes, this is the name of the coffee shop... the name is fitting as it pretty much describes how the coffee tastes. *Sigh, I miss Dunkin Donuts* Anyway, I had my $1.50 in my pocket (originally allocated for the train) and instead used that to pay for my gasoline, er, coffee.
So, I eventually get on the train... and after 1 stop, suddenly the transit police board and start checking everyone's pass. D'oh! Do they give you a ticket (if so, how much)? Do they arrest you? Do they shoot you on site? Of course, I don't wait around to find out. I immediately get off at the next stop (which is now underground), thinking that I had out-maneuvered Ponch, Jon and the rest of the Chips cast.
But of course, it wasn't that easy. There are two more transit police there waiting in the station writing up tickets to unsuspecting commuters! I don't see these guys for 4 months and now they're like a SWAT team everywhere I look? So, I turn up the volume to my iPod and hurry past them, that way if they yell toward me, I can't hear them... It made sense at the time. Maybe it was the crappy Muddy Waters coffee clouding my judgement.
Anyway, I do a loop around the station, duck behing a couple of poles in the underground station, and hear the next train coming. Before making my dash toward the doors, I peek around the pole (a this point even the homeless guy in the station is looking at me kind weird) to make sure there are no more gun-waving transit police on the platform, wait a few more seconds, and then quickly board the next train. Situation averted. Of course, I was ready for a full-out chase through the subway, like in French Connection (is there a subway chase in that movie?) but it never really happened. Maybe next time.
Good story, but I was expecting you to be arrested at the end....brought into a Subterranean holding cell where you were strip searched then sexually assaulted by three very attractive cops.
Posted by: Patrick | January 26, 2007 at 06:35 PM