The Bay Area Diaries takes a noticeable departure from the usual quality and tone brought to the entry on Muni’s bus operations.

The Diaries, and L.A.-oriented Ride Reports published on MetroRiderLA, takes pride in copious attention to the fundamental details of the ride. What time did the bus arrive, what was the number and make of the bus, what line is ridden and how many passengers were aboard. The pedantry’s message: We care.

There will be no effort to maintain that level of detail for Muni buses. Muni earned heaps of well-deserved scorn from San Franciscans for management and operations that seemed to have been mailed in — by Pony Express. If a transit agency, through concerted inaction or lazy inaction, could treat its riders this way, the Bay Area Diaries’ feedback loop senses that it can act the same way with its readers. And will.

Fortunately, this entry is going to be lightly patronized since it’s about buses and most people couldn’t give a crap about them in the first place. Rail’s another matter. That attracts a lot of attention and very passionate viewpoints, so commentary must tread with caution. Muni buses, though, get the tritest of all literary and discussion devices: A Top 10 list. Unroll your eyes for a second and click below for MetroRiderLA’s Complete Muni bus Info and Rider’s Guide.

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The Bay Area Diaries is over the hump of the blog entry arc, and the focus is now on transit services within the city of San Francisco. Ahem, The City of San Francisco.

Since Part VI deals with San Francisco proper, and rail in particular, expect more people to start showing an interest in the series. San Francisco Municipal Railway’s three rail services get some play: Muni Metro, the F Market line and, of course, the cable cars. All this and a celebrity appearance.

This $11 Muni passport is free with the click of the “continue reading” button.

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IMPORTANT NOTICE

Technical difficulties prevented the diaries from being released in the original scheduled order. Part IV: Sonoma County runs today. Part V: Golden Gate Ferry, appeared yesterday. Thank you for your patience and your continued patronage of MetroRiderLA.

Charles Schulz thought he could live in Santa Rosa and complete his “Peanuts” comics in peace. He became the town’s most famous resident, and soon enough the Charles M. Schulz Museum & Research Center is founded and several “Peanuts” statues are placed throughout the city.

Sonoma County figuratively has one foot in the Bay Area and the other in the North Coast, but it also stands proudly and confidently on its own. Sonoma’s viticulture is its gift to the world, and its wineries are a major economic force. The vineyards and other agricultural industries are still very prominent, but the county is dotted with several cities that maintain a quaint, small-town charm.

The county’s location and its land use give it an unconventional transportation characteristic as well. Sonoma County has a transportation tapas bar; the portions are small but the options are many.

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IMPORTANT NOTICE

Attention, Bay Area Diaries readers. Due to technical problems with what was supposed to be Part IV: Sonoma County running today, the Bay Area Diaries is running Part V: Golden Gate Ferry in order to attempt to remain on schedule. MetroRiderLA apologizes for the inconvenience, and we will try to resume a normal operating schedule as soon as possible.

Just sit right back and hear a tale, a tale of a fun-filled trip. Fortunately, on Golden Gate Ferry, there are no castaways and the tour is only a fraction of three hours.

Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with the Bay Area Diaries on what is, hands down, a commute that makes the journey as fun as the destionation.

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Unless they live on-campus at a local university (USC, UCLA, Pomona), Angelenos now have no car-sharing options available to them. Prior to 2008, Flexcar members in Culver City, Downtown, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Pasadena, Santa Monica, Venice, and Wilshire Center had access to a large number of vehicles. However, 2008 brought the anticipated/dreaded merger with rival Zipcar, and as CurbedLA reports, the outcome of the merger is a worst-case-scenario come true. Here is an email that many Flexcar members turned Zipcar members received (apparently I was not on the mailing list):

Car sharing is an evolving category of transportation, and we are working hard to pioneer the industry. We are constantly learning more about the best way to operate our service, and sometimes what we learn results in a tough decision.

In Southern California, we have decided to remove our vehicles from areas outside of the universities we serve (cars will remain at UCLA, USC, Pomona, UCSB, UCSD and UCI).

This was a difficult decision for us, and we understand it may present significant inconvenience for you. We apologize for that.

Reservations for all affected locations have been canceled and fully credited. Further, we have refunded annual membership fees for all members who paid an annual fee within the past nine months. Your refund will appear in your account automatically. If you have questions about your refund, please contact us at info@zipcar.com.

We realize that you recently activated your Zipcard. We’d like to encourage you to use it by placing a *new* $25 driving credit into your account. Hopefully, you’ll reserve a vehicle at one of our university locations in Southern California or in any other city where we provide service. If you have further questions, do not hesitate to contact us at info@zipcar.com.

The team at Zipcar

Ummm… no.

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What gives the city identity beyond mere municipal boundaries and civic government? Unique icons. Great cities, in time and space, have an element that could be either manmade or natural, but the presence of it is singular enough to become so closely associated with the area and its people. It’s something that one city has that no other can authentically claim. Every city has at least one.

New York City has the Empire State Building. Seattle has the Space Needle. Los Angeles has the Hollywood sign.

Each of these cities obviously has more architectural and natural features that also contribute to a sort of metropolitan image association. San Francisco has many as well. Sanfran has a distinct architectural style of houses that immediately leaps out and gives away its location. Other towering structures uniquely Sanfran are the Transamerica Building, which serves as the company’s logo, and Coit Tower. Sanfran also has monuments that double as modes of transportation: cable cars, responsible for transporting thousands per day and improving sales of Rice-a-Roni. But Sanfran’s most iconic landmark has size, span and sensory stimulation.

Nothing in San Francisco is more iconic than the Golden Gate Bridge.

We know the bridge is one of mankind’s engineering marvels. We know thousands travel between Sanfran and the North Bay, and many more visit it for the perfect photograph or vacation video. What’s not as well known, probably because it doesn’t have much visual appeal and because the forest is more interesting than the sum of its trees, is that the Golden Gate Bridge has a posse.

Golden Gate is not just a bridge. It’s a bus company as well.

And a ferry service.

Let’s ride across the Golden Gate Bridge using the structure’s own coach service.

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