MUNI – 28 19th Ave

Taking muni on the weekends is always nicer as it’s not too crowded. When debating whether or not to call a car or take the bus, I decided to take the bus. I was going to the Marina from the Richmond district. Plus, I had plenty of time to get there, so why not save some money and take the bus? It was Saturday, February 27^th around 12 noon.
The route to the Marina is actually really pretty. You go by the Golden Gate Bridge parking lot, so you get a nice view of the bridge. I was surprised the route was so beautiful as all the muni routes I’ve taken have been rather boring. It was a beautiful day, so I got a great view.
I’m sure on the weekdays during commute hours, this bus is packed and all you wanna do is get to your destination. But on a nice day during the weekend? It’s not too bad. And all for $ 2.25.

8360 28 muni bus @ 5 AM driver is very aggressive, combative, not reliable, drives super fast which is not acceptable and racist Bus Driver Ever!!! He has to see the psychiatrist before his shift!!! He puts person lives’ in danger!!!

The Muni on the 19^th ave need to improve its time schedule. Some time the 28 bus just missed its schedule so the bus become so crowded. Also when that happens the second bus just right beyond the first bus. It is horrible when that happens. I do not know if it is the first driver was late or the second driver was early. Make sure you give yourself extra time and do not trust the time schedule they give you on their website.

Catching this route from the marina district to the inner rich, is so quick and easy. It also stops at the golden gate bridge too. Don’t know about the rest of the route though.

The last time I took this bus was when I was going to the airshow in SF. Do not make the same mistake I did. This bus is not very efficient because it gets crowded up by people who are laborers when it is rush hour. No offence but when the bus crowds up I do not like it. I even had to wait a long time when coming out of GGP for a work break. By the time the bus got here I was late for work. If you have no car while near 19^th street please take the taxi when special events or rush hour come along. You can still hail one down.

There’s always some problem with the 28. Typical example –Peak time and 30 minutes to the next bus, and meanwhile four 28Ls pas by in the space of 10 minutes.

I’m from the East Bay and I use BART to commute to SF. As I attend SFSU I use this or the SFSU shuttle to take me to campus. If you have a Clipper card it’s free; you have a 23 hour window period to use your two free bus rides. If you don’t have this option then it’s $ 2.00 standard fare.
PROS
— Both 28 and 28L stop at SFSU.
— For most trips the first stop is SFSU. I can count with one hand the number of times people stop at stops before SFSU.
— If school’s not in session, this is the only way to get to SFSU from BART using public transportation.
— Most of the people taking the bus are students. I’ve rarely seen any instances of «questionable» people riding the bus and the instances themselves were minor and were at worst a minor inconvenience.
CONS
— The bus drops you a block from campus. You have to cross Holloway to get to SFSU. You could be waiting ~1−2 minutes before light says you can cross.
— On peak rush hour the bus has to go through Junipero Serra and 19^th, which the SFSU shuttle can skip. This can add to the commute time.
— Sometimes the driver forgets to activate the option of the free transfer and charges your Clipper card the $ 2.00 fare. If you have your card registered you can fix this, but just the sheer inconvenience of having to do this is quite annoying. This has also happened at least a couple of times.

I usually have no issues taking the 28/​28L when necessary (I usually drive to work)…until 4÷28÷14 when the bus was 35 minutes late and I was scrambling to find a Lyft during rush hour so I might make it to work on time…
Long story short: very disappointed in this bus line. It’s supposed to come every 10 minutes according to Google Maps and I was left finding another way to get to work that morning after waiting 35 minutes…
Viva la Lyft!

This bus sucks, plain and simple. Even though there are different drivers, whether I caught the 6:58 or the 7:07 in the morning or any one of the busses in the afternoon, the problems were all the same.
The morning bus would often, and I mean OFTEN, simply drive right past me waiting on the corner. Because it would be crowded… yet then it would stop a block away and let on 20 more people. Once I was sick of being late for work because of the 28, so I ran to catch it a block down after it drove right past me. Only the driver decided that she wouldn’t let anyone in the front doors, so she only opened the back ones. So, knowing that all I had was cash I was basically screwed. After running a block and being driven right past, after waiting 20 minutes because it was late to begin with.
On the afternoon route, this bus is very crowded. Why MUNI knows this and still send a single and not an accordion bus to make this route I will never know the wisdom in. I have finally given up and started walking in the opposite direction from my destination just so that I can catch a bus that is reliable and will actually pick me up when I am waiting or when I need to pay cash at the front door.
Note: the above story is not a single happenstance. Multiple times have I been driven past, multiple times have I complained directly to MUNI about it, multiple times have I been not allowed in the front doors when I need to pay cash, multiple times have I been waiting for long periods of time and have busses on this route just not ever shown up and multiple times have I sprinted to the next stop to attempt to catch said bus and not be later to work.
Worst bus ever.

On a weekday during peak hours, I feel like a sardine packed into a can with other sardines smushed with me.
On a good day, its just me.
At night, this bus takes FOREVER. =\

I like to believe that I’m respectful about other people’s opinions even though they differ from mine, but in this case I just can’t grasp the fact that there are people out there who thinks the 28 is anywhere near being A-​OK or even better. Are they confusing the MUNI 28 with another city’s 28? That’s the only explanation I can come up with, because I refuse to believe that there exist people whose standards are so low that the 28 is anywhere close to being A-​OK relative to whatever else they know.
I don’t even know where to begin. My deep hatred for this bus line cannot be expressed enough. All I can say is that one lucky car dealership should give MUNI a referral bonus, because I’m buying a car. (Sorry Mother Nature — blame MUNI!)
First, what genius at MUNI decided that a bus line running down one of the most trafficked streets in the city should run at less-​than-​every-​5-​minutes frequency or be operated by a non-​accordion bus? Clearly a genius who makes enough money to not have to rely on the 28 even though he or she certainly isn’t doing their job and therefore should take a pay cut or better yet, leave.
I’ve lived in SF for two years and lived in several places in the city in that time, so I’ve taken them all — 5, 22, 23, 30, 38, 43, 45… while they all have their fair share of weirdness, such is to be expected by public transportation in a large American city, but they would all get me from A to B in a reasonable amount of time, so aside for a few incidents including — but not limited to — sexual harassment and really, really smelly people, they were all A-​OK with me.
Anyway, I’ve been in my new location for a month now, and in that time, the 28 have pissed me off enough to call 311 to complain about it THREE times. Mind you, I’m not a complainer, I’m one of those people who will suffer through a restaurant meal that the waiter got wrong because I feel so bad complaining about it. I’ve never ever had the need to complain about a MUNI line before either, but again, that changed when I had to rely on the 28.
A couple of mornings on my way to school the bus have just driven past me. One time it wasn’t even that crowded, and of course the next one didn’t show up for another 15 minutes since again, some genius at MUNI decided that it doesn’t need to run more frequently than that. Of course I was late for class, but then again, it’s not like I wanted that A in the class that I’m spending thousands of dollars to take. But it’s ok, I guess if I do too badly, I could always get a job with MUNI.
Last night however, was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I was coming back from the gym, soaking wet, and it was freezing and raining. As I was getting off the 38, I see the 28 leaving from the stop across the street, which sucks and was inconvenient, but that’s something that happens with public transportation, so I can’t really blame MUNI too much for that. Anyway, I check NextBus and see that the next bus arrives in 17 minutes. Very inconvenient and I’m wet and freezing my ass off, but whatever, it is what it is. 17 minutes go by, nothing. I check NextBus again, now it says 4 minutes. 4 minutes go by, again, nothing. The bus finally shows up after I’ve waited in my wet gym clothes in the freezing cold for 38 minutes. Seriously, what excuses a 20 MINUTE delay on a bus that only runs three times an hour to begin with??? I would have gotten home faster if I had just walked home, but since I’d rather avoid crossing GG park on foot after dark, that wasn’t an option. Also, because of the delay, of course the bus was packed, so after GG park some people weren’t even able to board, probably having to wait another 40 minutes in the freezing cold for the next bus. Seriously, my grandparents’ Lada was more reliable than this bus, and it was a far more comfortable ride too.
If possible, I would give this line zero stars, but since it’s not possible, I’ll give it one. Actually, no, I am giving it zero stars, but I’m adding one for having fewer smelly people than the other lines I’ve frequented (22, 5, I’m looking at you). This could be explained by the 28 servicing areas with fewer homeless people than downtown and the mission, but I will argue that the real reason is that while being unable to use bathrooms or wash themselves, even the people who shit their pants in public know better than to take the 28.

How do you rate a bus, actually why did I check into one?
Anyways…the 28 is alright. Buses come fairly often, but be prepared to cram in when school is out. This poor bus will pick up everyone from SF State, then Lowell, then Lincoln on its way to Inner Richmond… and vice versa on its way to Daly City. Avoid from 3−5pm. At its busiest, this bus has no problem flying past your stops like you are invisible.
But at least there is a 28L every so often.

Today, in advance of an important appointment at 2PM, I got to the bus stop 15 minutes before Nextbus told me it would arrive (about 1:10PM). It arrived very late, around 1:37PM, almost entirely packed. Inched up 19^th Ave at a glacial pace. I got to my destination at, um, 3:05PM.
That’s right: it took me TWO FREAKING HOURS for what should have been a 30 or 35 minute trip (I have made this trip before, many times).
This bus line is perpetually late, filled with grumpy people (particularly teenagers and old people who seem to be locked in perpetual warfare), and like all muni buses, redolent with the smell of urine and BO.
Being that my trip today was 400% longer than it should have been, I think I understand the urine issue a little better.
Surprisingly, the drivers are actually pleasant 71% of the time. Then there’s today, when the driver actually got out of the bus to yell at a car that had cut her off at an intersection.
Sigh.

If MUNI lines were human beings, then the 28 would have been murdered a long time ago. The prime suspect? EVERY HUMAN BEING WHO EVER RODE THIS LINE! Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration as I’m sure babies and toddlers wouldn’t have developed the extreme frustration and agony this bus can cause so early in their development… but then again I wouldn’t be surprised when it comes to this bus.
Now when I first moved to where I am at now, relying on only one bus to get to work shouldn’t have been a problem, but since this is MUNI we’re talking about, having high hopes would only lead to extreme frustration and agony. I rode during the summer, meaning there weren’t going to be too many students crowding my space. Even I knew things were going to get worse, and man, did it.
Since then, it has only gotten worse over the course of the two and a half years that I began riding the 28 (and if I’m lucky, the 28L) on a daily basis. MUNI switched over from using paper Fast Passes to the Clipper Card… which isn’t too bad, but ever since then, letting people on through the back is the norm and I’ve seen WAY too many people get on for free, crowding the buses even more than it should. All you freeloading MUNI riders should be ashamed of yourselves, and I hope you eventually get caught, especially that ugly, nasty, homeless-​looking Filipino guy who acts crazy and sneezes everywhere.
Prices have gone up, which means only one thing… less service. Yeah, paying more to get less is the norm in San Francisco nowadays.
And don’t even bother looking at NextBus. Sure, it can be accurate some of the time, but more than likely, the buses will be too early or too late, and NextBus will go from 11 minutes until a bus arrives one minute, and 2 minutes the next minute later, with the next bus arriving in 42 minutes. And most of the time, I see a bus go from 2 minutes to 22 minutes or 32 minutes, depending on… actually, I have no fucking clue what MUNI is thinking.
I don’t blame NextBus too much… it’s just the messenger, after all… though messengers get killed when announcing bad news so it’s only natural to blame NextBus. No, the real culprit is MUNI.
Speaking about delays, you would think bus lines would put out more buses during peak hours, not take them away. I’ve been on board plenty of buses where the buses were crowded because the bus hadn’t shown up for thirty minutes, and people just keep on packing in like sardines because they really don’t know when another bus will show up again. There’s been times when the bus was crowded, only to have the driver tell us that it’s suddenly stopping and will go out of service, making people wait for the next bus at some random stop, only for the next bus to arrive in 20, 30, 40 minutes. I’ve had to catch the train to West Portal and another bus just to get home, and even while taking the long way home, the 28 still hadn’t shown up by then.
It’s simply atrocious to see this bus go from mediocre to downright disgusting. From buses showing up too early, to buses showing up way too late, to not showing up at all, resulting in huge crowds during peak hours. The 28 is on a major street. Two, in fact. Three, if you count the part of Lombard Street that isn’t all curvy for no reason but to attract tourists. It comes in contact with three trains and other important bus lines. Why did we all end up having to pay more to get on these buses when they take away service instead of adding buses to these important lines?
The 28 is nothing but lies and disappointment, and NextBus is its messenger. It’s kinda sad that it running on time with buses coming at 10 – 15 minute intervals, with people being content to mildly happy is the exception on this line, not the norm.

How the hell did this line get worse from the year and a half i’ve been taking it? Oh i dont know, having Municipal transport raise the price of practically everything and yet TAKE OUT a fucking Limited stop. Which happened to be the stop i just moved to. (Noriega)
Tell me this… You raise the price of a monthly pass to offset what? The dropping of MANY Limited stops?
Skull Fuck you muni and all your shitty rude ass drivers and greedy corporate douches.
Seriously.
Skull Fuck you.

The 28 19^th Ave is certainly one route I can count on for taking me between San Francisco State University, Daly City BART and 19^th Ave. I do have to admit that there are times when buses on this route can be very crowded. There were a few times when I have had to wait more than 10 minutes for the 28 as well. Overall, the 28 is one route to take me between 19^th Ave and Daly City BART.
It seriously would be very nice if MUNI can consider having the Hybrid Buses or even the Neoplan Artics assigned to service on this route.
FYI:
The zip codes for 19^th Ave between Lincoln Way, Byxbee St and Randolph St are 94 122, 94 116 and 94 132 respectively.

The 28-​Nineteenth Avenue (and, technically, the 29-​Sunset) breaks one of the cardinal rules of transportation-​system planning: Avoid confusion.
Have you ever wondered why the Muni buses are numbered the way they are? I have too. I don’t know anything definitively, but I surmise that at one point the numbers ran in a roughly parallel line. For example, the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 all ran east and west, and they were in order. But as lines were added, things became more confusing. Or less confusing.
See, it’s actually much better to have completely differently numbered lines at the same stops. That way, commuters don’t end up on the wrong bus. This used to be a problem with the 6, 7, 66, and 71 before they split the lines up; and it’s still a major problem with the 47 and 49. I can see how the 28 and 29 could cause a problem, and honestly, I thought I had ridden the 28 before last weekend when, in fact, I had only been on the 29.
Numbering issues aside, I like the 28. It gets up and down 19^th Avenue relatively efficiently. No, it’s not fast, but there’s no real way to move quickly on 19^th Avenue anyway. I guess it could do without some of its stops, but the bus never really gets out of the right lane, so those extra stops don’t really add much time in the grand scheme of things.
I wish Muni would consider putting some of its hybrid buses on this line. The Avenues get absolutely no love when it comes to Muni, and although I still love the 27-​Bryant to death, I think hybrid buses on that line are a waste of bus-​cleaning manpower.

I used to take the 28 all the time to go to work since my parents wouldn’t let me take my car out here in SF. Since I was 17 at the time I moved to SF, I thought taking the bus was so much affordable because it would only cost me $.50 to take the bus. Now when I turned 18, I had to pay $ 1.50. Thank god my parents allowed me to take my car to SF before they raised the bus fare to $ 2.00. I sometimes take it to go to Haight so I won’t have to worry about parking and sometimes I dread it cause the 28 is always packed. Sometimes I would wait on Lincoln/​19^th Ave and the bus would just drive past me just because it’s full and I would be the only person at that stop waiting for the 28. Like couldn’t they fit 1 more person in?
Watch out for the San Francisco State stop cause that’s where it usually gets packed. Plus, if you’re at the SF State stop waiting for the 28 to go to Daly City Bart, you can take the SF State shuttle bus which is free.

A little story for ya.
Aite, so I see the 28 coming, glad that it’s here and that I don’t have to walk.
I had a tissue in my hand and wanted to throw it away, so I jump on the bus, see the trash bag with old tickets, an empty yogurt container, and some other garbage. And I toss my tissue in there and walk in. No problem, right?
WRONG.
A second later, the bus driver turns around, gets out of his seat, and gestures for me to come back. And then this ensues:
Driver: Take it out.
Me: Take what out?
Driver: *point to the tissue I threw in the trash* Take it out.
Me: What? It’s a trash can!
Driver: Take it out!
Me: It’s a TRASH CAN.
Driver: No. It’s MY trash. TAKE IT OUT.
I wasn’t going to waste everyone’s time by arguing with the stubborn bus driver, so I just took out that ONE freaking piece of tissue out of «HIS» freaking trash bag and walked away.
WTF.
Power trip, anyone?
The only reason I’m giving this bus more than one star is because it’s generally less sketchy than most other lines, and because I grew up riding this bus. I mean, I’ve had this bus close its doors in my face, drive right past me even after the driver saw me waving for him to stop, made me late on numerous occasions back in high school, had several buses drive past me because they were too full. But the 28, running through the Sunset and Richmond, that’s my hood right there, that’s my people. So I can’t totally hate on you.
But man, crazy power tripping bus driver, I’ve never met a person who was possessive over a TRASH CAN.
Mmmhmmm. Love/​hate relationship with MUNI is a part of life in this City.

Truthfully?
Compared to concord buses, the 28 is awesome.
When I went to DVC sometimes I would wait an HOUR OR MORE for my bus, not effin kidding. So now that I go to SFSU, I take this periodically when the Free shuttle is packed and I gotta tell you, waiting the 15 minutes for another one, or to catch the shuttle is really not that bad.
It gets packed like the ³⁰⁄₄₅ through Chinatown sometimes, but c’mon, have you seen how many people go to SFSU?
4 stars for getting me places and doing it free cause you can grab a transfer in BART.
Concord charges 85 cents people. Count your blessings.