San Francisco bus getting WiFi, deathmatch to follow

Finally things are starting to get a little more futuristic around here. Beginning next Monday, bus riders in San Francisco will get a chance to hop at least one ride that will take them to the Columbus stop, Van Ness stop... and the World of Tomorrow. Thanks to the combined effort of SF's Muni and Cisco, the "Connected Bus" will be hauling around free WiFi and touchscreen maps on its walls (which will also carry updated connecting transit information). Sure, it's no citywide wireless coverage, but combined with the BART train WiFi rollout, it's certainly a start. Cisco tested the bus with 15 riders checking email and downloading music and movies on laptops, and say that the signal was "strong and uninterrupted," though they admit they haven't tested the system during a 15-player fragfest. Anyone up for a ride?

[Thanks, Paul in SF]

[phanbouy @ Feb 21st 2008 2:04PM]

lol! take out my laptop on MUNI? not. gonna. happen. ever. do i really really need to list the reasons why?

[Flashpoint @ Feb 21st 2008 2:18PM]

GIMME THAT LAPTOP MUTHAF*CKA

MY SH*T !

[ashersuper @ Feb 21st 2008 2:06PM]

I can only imagine the etching to be had on those touch screens. Do the people who decide these things ever ride Muni? Or any other urban public transportation system? The windows are so etched full of tags it's a wonder you can see out of them.

[John @ Feb 21st 2008 2:10PM]

Downloading music and movies? That hardly seems fair, they don't even let me do that at home.

[muddyh2o @ Feb 21st 2008 2:11PM]

but for my wifi enabled phone it will be suhwheet

[Bb @ Feb 21st 2008 2:13PM]

Typical!

You wait years for internet connected public transport, then two show up nearly together.

[m @ Feb 21st 2008 2:34PM]

lol!
then they both blow past your stop, mouthing, "there's another one right behind me." f#$@ing muni...

[Neal @ Feb 21st 2008 2:24PM]

Huh, had Wifi for free for more than a year now on many bus routes as well as the ferry system in the Seattle area...

[Tironius @ Feb 21st 2008 2:25PM]

There's going to be a new class of wifi bums on the Muni now, who just ride that one line all day with laptops, kind of like what you see at the Apple store theater. Muni wifi moochers.

[phanbouy @ Feb 21st 2008 2:30PM]

wow i knew that SF bums made good coin panhandling and cashing their city handouts at the liquor stores, but they're buying their own laptops too?

[Tironius @ Feb 21st 2008 5:03PM]

It's a lucrative business, don't you know.

But I was imagining a new level of bum, one that has a job and bathes, but doesn't like to pay for wifi.

[Wallace Roberts @ Feb 21st 2008 2:27PM]

AC Transit already had Wifi on the bus...... First! LOL

[Tim Smith @ Feb 21st 2008 2:37PM]

Dear MUNI,

I appreciate free wireless, but I'd hope that next time you instead spent your time, effort, and money making the buses not smell like piss. Oh and maybe you could stop the occasional bum fist fights over crack rocks. That would be nice too.

Sincerely,
A MUNI rider

[EddieW @ Feb 21st 2008 2:41PM]

Bum fist fight over crack rocks? You realize people paid good money to buy DVD of those things, right? And you watch it for free?!

[phanbouy @ Feb 21st 2008 2:45PM]

i heart this comment

i hate MUNI so much i made sure to own 2 bicycles, a car, and multiple good walking shoes. and have taxi numbers on quick dial.

what's great is that mayor gavin newsome gave the muni chief a raise to what, $350K a year? -- the city's highest paid employee as i recall.

i read some study that the average speed of a muni bus was 8mph. of course, this is exacerbated due to gridlock, lack of multi-modal xport, poor planning, poorly timed lights, "pedestrians" gansta walking/jaywalking at crosswalks at 1mph. oh well, at least my rent is slightly less than manhattan.

/rant

[Ian @ Feb 21st 2008 2:40PM]

hmm that would be interesting having a 15 person game of counter strike or something on the move.

[bob sakamano @ Feb 21st 2008 2:41PM]

this will go good in SF for all the MBA hippies

[phanbouy @ Feb 21st 2008 2:47PM]

MBAs are usually wearing power suits and hang out in the financial district at starbucks.

[bob sakamano @ Feb 21st 2008 2:49PM]

I agree with you, but honestly, I outside an Apple Store I haven't seen anyone with an MBA yet! (I live in NYC, too)

[bob sakamano @ Feb 21st 2008 2:43PM]

Are there electrical outlets on the MUNI, or will that be the only barrier to any MUNI-LAN-PARTY lasting longer than two hours?

[Grant @ Feb 21st 2008 2:49PM]

now all they need is the chainsaw slits on the side of the bus and they will finally truely be functional.

[sinai @ Feb 21st 2008 2:59PM]

1 - if you had thought for more than two seconds, it would have come across to you that you don't need to ride the muni to get this signal. you could just have your driver pull up and drive next to the bus to get your wifi.

2 - if you're at a place where there is constant bus motion (financial district) you could conceivably hop from signal to signal.

3 - forget BUS signal, they really need to put wifi in the bus shelters. with tons of people waiting 30 minutes for a 10 minute bus ride, it's clear to see where the signal will be most beneficial.

[Thomas P. @ Feb 21st 2008 3:02PM]

Screw 15man fragfests, what about 32man?

[EBone @ Feb 21st 2008 3:09PM]

What movie is that shot from? I can see it but can't remember it.

[phanbouy @ Feb 21st 2008 3:32PM]

i dunno but do yourselves a favor and click on it to see the SFGate article; then read the comments. fracking hilarity

[Harlo @ Feb 22nd 2008 11:42AM]

I believe that's "Land of the Dead" and the Dead Reckoning bus.

[sodapop @ Feb 21st 2008 3:37PM]

This might be good for people with iPhones and other smart phones, but have you ridden the bus in SF? Its all poor people and bums. Besides, who wants to get annoying work email BEFORE or AFTER work?

[- @ Feb 21st 2008 4:09PM]

The poverty line must have moved much higher if my friends and I are now considered poor people. Or maybe we're the bums you mentioned, that must be it. Never mind, carry on.

[sodapop @ Feb 21st 2008 5:17PM]

Well, I was basing my comments on visual appearance...

[phlavor @ Feb 22nd 2008 2:32AM]

Poor. Rich. It's all where you draw the line. Unless the Vanderbuilts gave you a yacht for your birthday, you're middle class at best.

I ride public transportation every day in San Francisco because I'm not going to pay $12 a day to park my car across from my office after an 8 minute drive.

Hell the whole city is 49 freaking square miles and I don't even go into 3/5s of it. I use my car for two things, groceries and Tahoe.

[sodapop @ Feb 22nd 2008 5:07PM]

Well, I was talking about poor. If you are a Democrat that means less than a living wage. The living wage in San Francisco is about $60k/yr

Do you need to "download music and play games" on the bus as Newsom claims the wi-fi is for ? It is a waste of money when you consider it's necessity and the number of people capable of using it.

BTW When I lived in SF I walked and used buses too. I used my car to vist family outside of the city.

[Lemmiwinks @ Feb 21st 2008 3:59PM]

I saw one of the "test buses" sitting out in front of the new Federal Building this morning. Throng of folks standing around like they were launching a ship.

And about the touch-screen maps... does anyone remember how quickly the glass bus stations on Embarcadero got all crapped up?

I don't even touch the hand rails on a Muni bus unless I'm about to fall.

[sinai @ Feb 21st 2008 4:02PM]

i love how this article turned from tecnology to fear and downright stereotyping poor people and so-called "gangbangers." looks like the mayor's not the only person who's out of touch.

[phanbouy @ Feb 21st 2008 4:42PM]

you kinda like to troll a little bit huh

[sinai @ Feb 21st 2008 4:57PM]

you're the main person making stupid stereotypes about people in a lower income bracket, and i'm the troll?

[phanbouy @ Feb 21st 2008 5:03PM]

i didn't say anything about income brackets, fool. and btw, you constantly troll all over the place on engadget. and now you're playing the sanctimonious one? GTFO.

[phanbouy @ Feb 21st 2008 5:50PM]

oh and btw, way for you to lump everyone together here as inferior to you just because we talk about what we've _observed_. by the way, bums cashing checks at liquor stores is what actually goes down. you're just pissed we're not using more PC descriptors. the homeless in SF are largely imports from other places because SF is a sanctuary city; they're not "the poor" and i'm not talking about class other than, of course, the fatcat Muni chief. by and large these street folks need treatment, not handouts from gvt and guilt ridden pious types like you.

in any case, however your opinion differs from mine doesn't change your hypocrisy or obvious lack of knowledge on the subject. you sure are good at baiting and bashing other users here though. bash on, ole' righteous one. way to be all contrarian and stuff.

[trevor @ Feb 22nd 2008 4:18AM]

The internet's version of a bum fight on a public bus:

geek fight on a public forum! Ha!

[- @ Feb 21st 2008 4:02PM]

Some AC Transit buses, particularly the longer distance buses connecting to San Francisco already have Wi-Fi. When I run a download speed test on it, it thinks I'm in the Washington DC area for some reason (I think it was over 700+mbps, though is pretty much dead on the lower deck of the Bay Bridge). Anyway, has anyone ever tried using a laptop on a bus? With all the bumps and jerking motions, the laptop kept bouncing off my lap, it took 15 minutes to type out an email the length of this post with no typos. Sure, my left hand was holding onto my coffee thermos, but that's just how I roll, yo. Would be more useful for the handheld wi-fi crowd.

[Miguel @ Feb 21st 2008 4:23PM]

In Portugal we have that since last year...

[phanbouy @ Feb 21st 2008 4:48PM]

in Soviet Russia the wifi transmits *you*

[bigdoggie @ Feb 22nd 2008 11:05AM]

We have touch screens on our busses now?

.. which ones?

[Thunderbuck @ Feb 21st 2008 4:33PM]

Soooo, are people saying this is a BAD idea?

Of course nobody's going to use a laptop, but for WiFi-enabled PDAs and phones, this is awesome. Might actually attract some new riders. If anything, this could make buses MORE secure, by enabling real-time video feeds to transit cops.

[phanbouy @ Feb 21st 2008 4:56PM]

I don't think anyone here has said "MUNI shouldn't have wifi" but rather that it has much much bigger fish to fry right now. And the last thing they could afford is to hire rent a cops to watch 500 different video feeds all day long.

[Thunderbuck @ Feb 21st 2008 5:06PM]

"Bigger fish to fry..." like improving security and reliability.

On-board WiFi can help both, and at "less than $10,000" per unit (according to the article), it seems like a bargain. I read the article, and many of the commenters complained about the accuracy of the "nextbus" system. Combining GPS with the connectivity these buses will have, this system could be made MUCH more reliable.

And, no, you don't need cops to view every live feed, but it would be relatively easy to capture digital video, particularly if a passenger hits the "panic" button. To me, this sounds like a great idea.

I swear, you can't do anything new these days without someone complaining.

[phanbouy @ Feb 21st 2008 5:09PM]

If you understood the magnitude of Muni's problems you'd realize why they need to sort out a whooooole lotta fundamentals before adding additional layers of bureaucracy and expense. New tech and band aids won't fix these problems, though they can help keep things in a good state once real reform goes down.

[TC @ Feb 21st 2008 5:12PM]

Save the money Muni and pave some of the fricking streets first. Will the drivers be using WiFi like they use their cellphones now? How about putting WiFi in the nextbus displays so we can email how very wrong the data is while we are slowly petrifying while we wait?

[phanbouy @ Feb 21st 2008 5:28PM]

Seriously! There's half a $Billion in street fixing backlog I've heard. And btw the intersection of Fell and Mason near the Panhandle is a pedestrian death trap. Focus, SF Gov!

[Reikon @ Feb 21st 2008 6:11PM]

Transbay AC Transit has had Wifi for a while, but AC Transit sucks even more than Muni. Often a bus that's supposed to come every 10 minutes will take 30-45 minutes, and then 3-4 of them will arrive at once. Then the drivers of the bus will run red lights, open the doors while the bus is moving to talk to their friends on the streets or other bus drivers, and other ridiculous stuff. I've seen a bus driver go down the wrong street and argued with the passengers for over 5 minutes before he finally turned around.

From my experience of Muni, it's much better than AC Transit. Muni also gets GPS predictions of the next bus at many stops, which is really useful.

[skoochy @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:19AM]

Wow, and people wonder why I am happy not to live in SF anymore.

I was checking out other places to invest in housing, and I saw that even Reno has several bus lines that have WiFi... and one of the lines is free to ride, too. Not to mention the roads there, despite the worse weather, are so much better that you can actually use a laptop on a bus because they aren't bumpy. Ever drive I-80 from California to Nevada? Weird how once you hit the border, the ripped up, falling apart bumpy noisy freeway turns to glass smooth. And it's an INTERSTATE. Sheesh.