With Muni still at only 63 percent of its pre-pandemic ridership, it would seem that fewer passengers would make a driver’s job easier.
Instead, drivers said, too many passengers getting onto their buses and trains are violent, erratic and troublesome — for them and other passengers.
It is, they said, the toughest time they’ve had to work in decades.
“After the pandemic, people have gotten more and more hostile,” said Carlos, a nine-year Muni operator, who now drives the 9R San Bruno Rapid and the 14R Mission Rapid.
Riders taunt him; he shouts at them to sit down. They sit, but then get into more trouble. “There are cameras on the bus, but people don’t care,” he said. They will masturbate, they will sink into unconsciousness. His instructions from superiors: Stay in your seat and drive.
Carlos’ experiences are not uncommon among the 187 Muni operators affiliated with the Flynn Division, the third-largest among Muni’s nine maintenance and operations facilities, located at 15th and Harrison streets. Most operators asked not to share their names, as they are afraid of upsetting their passengers and Muni.
Nonetheless, they were all eager to vent. A veteran operator who’s now on the 9R says he has learned to smile as riders try to get a free ride, jump out between stops to hail the bus, or even threaten to hijack the bus. “Give me the bus. Get off the seat. Let me drive,” he recalls one passenger telling him. He did not.
He knows how to distinguish the screamers from those who may hit him in the head. “Have a seat. Here’s a transfer,” is what he says most often.
“Some people are just so negative, and they want to bring people down with them,” he said. “It’s your misery; you’re trying to bring me down. It’s just not going to work.”
Muni operators’ lounge at the Flynn Division. Photo by Yujie Zhou, July 3, 2023. 
Muni operators’ lounge at the Flynn Division. Photo by Yujie Zhou, July 3, 2023. 
Muni operators’ lounge at the Flynn Division. Photo by Yujie Zhou, July 3, 2023. 
Muni operators’ lounge at the Flynn Division. Photo by Yujie Zhou, July 3, 2023. 
Muni operators’ lounge at the Flynn Division. Photo by Yujie Zhou, July 3, 2023.
“You can’t be yourself while you’re driving”
At the lounge on 15th Street where the drivers eat and relax, multiple safety fliers warn of troublemakers and incidents. On May 4, for example, a suspect threw a large glass bottle of liquor at an operator’s forehead when the driver refused to make an unauthorized stop.
Every day, there’s one operator who gets assaulted, said Anthony Ballester, the president of Transport Workers Union Local 250A, which represents more than 2,000 Muni operators. “We really don’t have any protection, and we are easy targets,” he explained.
Muni operators are unarmed.
Often, drivers said, it’s impossible to make every passenger happy; there is just too much happening at once. A female Muni operator explained the many conflicting tasks she must attend to: “You’ve got to protect yourself. You’ve got to watch out for motorists, pedestrians, scooters, bikers, walkers and all that.” At the same time, she says, she’s taking incoming fire: “They throw bottles at our window. They spit on us.”
She is on standby from 1 p.m. to 1 a.m. “That’s when the zombies come out. People zombies. Walking zombies.” The self-described rookie says seeing people having sex in the back has become so common that it no longer jars her.
The names she is called are constant and varied: “I’ve been called Picaninny, fat ass, the black Chinese bitch,” she said.
Her armor? Prayer and a stern demeanor. “You can’t be yourself while you’re driving,” she said. “You have to turn into somebody else.”
At times, she threatens to call the police, but she also knows it will take 20 minutes or longer for SFPD or staff from Muni’s operations hub, the Transportation Management Center, to show up.
“Because TMC is understaffed right now,” said Ballester.
Another female operator who drives the 14R joined the chat as she prepared Nissin Cup Noodles for lunch. “The moment they see you a female, the first thing they call you is a ‘bitch.’ They just treat you differently. Like, they might say nothing to him, [but] say something to me because I’m a female,” she said, pointing to her male colleague.
“You gotta have that tone in your voice: ‘Who are you talking to?’” she said.
Just last week, a man threatened to kill her if she didn’t let him off at a place where the bus doesn’t stop. When he finally got off, she said, she bade him goodbye with, “Have a nice day!”
There was a wheelchair rider who used to masturbate every time he boarded her bus. He would moan and show off in front of kids. “Out,” she shouted. “You so nasty. Get off.” She no longer lets him on her bus.
At the lounge where the drivers eat and relax, multiple safety fliers warn of troublemakers and incidents. Photo by Yujie Zhou, July 3, 2023. 
At the lounge where the drivers eat and relax, multiple safety fliers warn of troublemakers and incidents. Photo by Yujie Zhou, July 3, 2023. 
At the lounge where the drivers eat and relax, multiple safety fliers warn of troublemakers and incidents. Photo by Yujie Zhou, July 3, 2023. 
At the lounge where the drivers eat and relax, multiple safety fliers warn of troublemakers and incidents. Photo by Yujie Zhou, July 3, 2023.
A one-man struggle
A driver who gave his name as Christopher agrees that it has never been worse on the 9R. The three doors open at the same time and prevent him from seeing everything, but he knows crowds of homeless people, which sometimes include an old man covered by feces, are boarding to use his bus as a “mobile hotel.”
He pleaded with this reporter to ride his bus so that he can get help. He has asked the Transit Management Center for help, but they told him to keep the bus rolling unless somebody is injured.
“10 out of 10 Muni operators have high blood pressure. This job will cost you, day after day,” said Christopher. “I have to. I got bills to pay. I have a family to support.”
Muni provides a peer system to help drivers with stress. A 25-year Muni veteran, who gave his name as Joe, said he’s not seeing the point: Every day, he and his peers must go through the same hell aboard their buses, and every day, it is ultimately a one-man struggle. “Are you also helping me tomorrow?” he asked.
“We are tools. This is who they wind up to make the bus go,” George, a five-year operator interrupted from an adjacent table. “They enforce the rules on us; they don’t enforce the rules on passengers.”
“The city is not going to stop anyone from getting on the bus,” said Ballester, the union president. “Every time someone gets on and off, they’re counted. So all the riders that go on a bus, that equals the fundings from the government.”
“Me, personally, I had to come to work no matter what, whether I want to or not, whether I feel good or not,” George added. But the increasing pressure leaves a mark. “But it’s like, I can’t believe my alarm’s already going off. And then I look at my checkbook and I go.”
And “transit advocates” wonder why more people don’t choose to get around by bus!
Drivers aren’t paid enough for this job.
San Francisco Muni fare should be eliminated. Too much of a hassle to pay. There are thieves on the bus that look to rob passengers who have money. You take a chance riding the bus. Also the cost to ride Muni is too high. Muni operators need to be protected in some type of bullet proof enclosure for their safety,but where they can still see the road. Violence on Muni is going to get worse. People are struggling and will do anything to survive for money or shelter and by riding the bus their out of the cold. Passengers need to be aware of their surroundings. Overcrowded buses don’t help the situation. Bottom line is protect the Muni operators at all times.
It’s time for Muni and Bart to tighten up on their security for the public as well as the employees. And it’s time for Mayor Breed, to act like a mayor, trying to make changes for the better for S.F. the criminal laws definitely need to be changed for the better. S F. And other bayarea cities, not to mention other states, have gone mad wild. As a tax payer, I deserve better than this. I will continue to drive my automobile as long as I can stay safe going to A and B destination. Muni, Bart get it together and stop pissing away our money!!!
A few years ago I was about to board a MUNI 14 when the driver burst out the door clutching a teen while telling her, “Get off my bus!” She fell on her back and the driver and I physically fended off her kicks. I could see that the driver was a normal man who was probably married with kids and I sympathized that he had to put up with people like that, but I’ve never seen another such incident, only one angry jerk who threw a sandwich hazard sign into the bus after he debarked.
Great article-I’m happy more attention is being brought to this. These drivers need safe working conditions. The city has always had its problems but post-pandemic, it’s gotten scary. Something’s gotta change.
Muni driver seems like a horrible experience but as a result of this practice of staring ahead and keep driving no matter what, they ignore school children and vulnerable people being attacked or harrassed. Muni is trying to generate cash by putting in more meters and enforcing them on weekends but what they need to do is make transit safer for everyone.
These hard working folks should be paid WAY more.Tax the rich!!
Great reporting. We need more stories on this issue. There’s loads of reporting on how residents feel unsafe, including on public transit, but very little about the drivers. We take them for granted, and we shouldn’t.
I was taken when the L Taraval became a bus and many riders thanked the driver as they exited, I started, too……
Are these drivers in a union?
And if their union is not really defending them, isn’t it high time for them to defend themselves: by building their own independent and democratic rank-and-file committee?
Personally, I miss the days when the driver of a bus was an individual, and the true captain of their own ship, one who was trusted and relied on for their experience and integrity.
They were trusted to enforce rules and decide themselves what was acceptable behavior on their bus.
Let me ask, who decides now?
And who defends the drivers?
SFPD crime dashboards report 1206 TOTAL YTD. If an assault a day on average is true for Muni drivers, that means 10% of all assaults in San Francisco are of Muni drivers.
Alternatively, SFPD crime data is undercounting assaults.
Makes you think.
As a public worker my heart goes out to drivers. You have no choice to keep coming it’s tough to get work now. Being called a bitch, punched in the face, prevented from escaping, in court for restraining orders because I need a paycheck and have vulnerable to protect. You are in my thoughts Muni. I appreciate you getting me to my destination that seems to be similar as yours.
The one driver saying they’re used as tools is completely correct. Muni management could care less about the drivers, other than keeping the buses moving. It’s a completely thankless job and drivers get all the collateral damage from management screwups and seeming indifference for their safety from Muni management, the cops and the City’s leaders. Yeah, they’re compensated well for their efforts. But no one driving a bus should be subjected to being spit on, threatened and physically accosted.
I’m not sure where you are getting the idea that MUNI drivers are well compensated. According to zip recruiter, the average hourly pay is $23.32. That’s less than $50k/yr before taxes and benefits. In San Francisco, that doesn’t go far. And that’s an average so that means 50% of drivers are making less than that.
Muni needs its own peace officers just like BART
It’s rough out there. It isn’t just MUNI. It isn’t just SF, either. So many Americans now are either angry, lonely, desperate, or otherwise unable to cope with managing their own behavior.
I gave up my car many years ago, and still don’t regret it. Thank you for all you do, drivers! Not only do you get me where I need to go, but many of you–in spite of everything–still somehow manage to greet me with a smile or a friendly word.