Using Public Transportation in San Francisco? Learning about the MUNI!

This guy approaches me, he's like, sir, I don't think you should be doing that. And I was like, what do you mean? How do you know this? And he was like, I know that because I work here. As he pulls out his badge... Hey there everyone, my name is Eduardo Arroyo. And today we'll be exploring San Francisco's Municipal Railway, or MUNI for short. You might be wondering, if we're making a video on the MUNI, why are we at a park? Let me tell you, today is a very windy day, so getting a good shot of anything, it's almost impossible since my camera doesn't have a mic input. And there's no place around my house, like a bench or anything, so it was really hard to record anywhere. So I had to come to this park. It's kind of quiet, kind of relaxing. So I thought it was a good idea to start here. When thinking exactly how I wanted to make this video, I was wondering if I should make it of the entire public transportation system here in San Francisco, but that would make for a very long video. So instead of doing that, I would like to focus today on talking about the MUNI, and more specifically about the light rail and the bus. Let me just go ahead and grab my stuff, and we can get going. San Francisco is a huge city. So when it comes to public transportation, there's a lot of different alternatives. Here in San Francisco, you can find light rail cars, you can find cable cars, you can find streetcars, you can also find buses like any other city, you can find the call train, and lastly, the parks. Right now, I'm on my way to the MUNI stop that is closest to my house, but before we get there, I would like to talk about some of the basic things regarding the MUNI. For example, how much does it cost to get on the MUNI? This first question does not have a definitive answer, as depending on what method you use in order to pay for your MUNI ride, it's going to depend on how much that's going to cost. With that said, there are three different methods in order to pay for the MUNI. We're walking this way. Yeah, I could make that, but probably not. The first method that you can use to pay for the MUNI is simple cash. For this method, it's necessary that you bring the exact amount of change because they don't give any change back. In order to pay for this method, you have to get on the first car, and there's a place where you pay, and it gives you a ticket. This ticket is good for 90 minutes, and you can use any other light rail car or any bus that you find in that amount of time. We're very close. Almost there. The stop is right after this bank. We are here. This is the stop for the MUNI, and this is the light rail, which takes you to downtown. See, there's two lines. This one is going to downtown. The other one is coming back. The second method that you can use in order to pay for your MUNI ride is using the app. There's actually an app that you can use. It's called MUNI Mobile. In that app, you can pay your fare through there. Honestly, I've never used this method, but I have a lot of friends that do, and they say that it's really helpful, really convenient. Honestly, I prefer the third method. In my opinion, the best way to pay for your MUNI ride is using the Clipper Card. Let me show it to you. This is it. This card, you can pay for it in any convenience store. I use Walgreens. The MUNI is coming. Let's go get a seat in the back. Hopefully, there's not a lot of people and that we can record better. Obviously, there are many different factors that will determine which payment option you'll use. Honestly, it depends mostly on your lifestyle. How many times will you be taking the bus a day, a week? Like I said before, for me, I take it almost every day. Getting the monthly pass, getting a discount, that's my best option. I also forgot to mention that you get a discount if you pay using your MUNI Mobile or your Clipper Card. That's another thing to think about. Whatever works for you will be the best option. I think the MUNI should be coming any time now. I'm going to stand up and go check on it. You guys, I'm finally in the MUNI. I have to be quiet just to be respectful to people. Before that, I just wanted to mention a few things. This is Line M. This is one of the seven lines in the MUNI for my cards. This will take us all the way to downtown like I said before. I don't know if you saw when I got up. I paid in that tiny thing right there. Just swipe your card and you'll get it. It's really easy to use. That's why I use it. Just swipe whenever I need to go anywhere. Hey there you guys. We finally made it here to Van Ness Station. This is one of the multiple underground stations for the light rail here in the MUNI system. As you can see, we are underground. It's a pretty big place. I don't know if you'll be able to hear me that well but I will try my best. There's two lines. One is for cars going outbound and the other one is for cars going inbound. Inbound means that these are going into downtown and outbound means that they're leaving downtown. If you're not from San Francisco, all you have to know is that downtown is where most of the offices for most of the companies are located. So if you ever come to San Francisco for work or for an internship, downtown is probably where you'll be going. At least that's the case for me. I live on the west side of the city so I have to go through 8 different stops like this one, 8 different stations in order to get to my job. It sounds like a lot because it is. It's honestly a long way but it doesn't feel like it because the light rail is really fast. As you can see here, there's a map of the different stations along with the different lines that go through those stations. There they are, all the different lines. You can also see the times when they'll be coming and going. You can see if it's outbound or inbound so it's really easy to track. There's also the names of all the different stations. Me and one of my friends have this inside joke about this map. It's a bad joke. It's a really bad one. Basically, you see how there's a station called church? Well, we say like, oh, you can't tell people that you go to church every day. Hey guys, so something happened to me. I was down there doing my B-roll shots and everything. Everything was going really nice but this guy approaches me. He's like, sir, I don't think you should be doing that. I was like, what do you mean? How do you know this? He was like, I know that because I work here. As he pulls out his badge, I was just like, oh snap. What am I doing wrong? He told me to go ask upstairs if I could get a permit or something. I was like, I don't think they're going to give me a permit. So I just came out and I didn't even ask them anything. Maybe I'll ask some other time but right now I really don't feel like it. Kind of caught me by surprise. I thought it was really funny. Like, how do you know that, sir? He's like, I work here. Okay guys, since I just got kicked out of the muni station, I think I'm just going to go and find a bus stop where I can head to somewhere where I can get something to eat. I'm really hungry. It's kind of unfortunate. Kind of funny too that it happened today and to me. But anyways, I'll come back whenever I find a bus stop. Alright you guys, I'm finally here at the bus stop. As you can see behind me, you'll see the map. This map is everywhere from different stalls, from inside the light cars to inside the train station. So here's the map for the bus and for all the different transportation methods. As you can see, the light rail doesn't cover everywhere. It kind of goes in a diagonal like that. But that's why the buses exist. The buses kind of fill in the gaps and they take you like any other places that you might want to go. They can go up, they can go down and take you to all those different places where you wouldn't be able to get to. One example that I use is that in order to get to Golden Gate Bridge, you need to use a bus because there's no other alternative. There's no light rail that takes you there and unless you want to pay for Uber, you have to take that bus. The bus is definitely slow and it doesn't fit as many people as let's say the streetcar or the light rail that we saw earlier. But it does what it can. It can help you get to all those other places that you wouldn't be able to get to. Dang it guys, I kind of forgot how slow these freaking buses are. I just looked at the little time thing that tells you by what time your bus is going to arrive and it said 24 minutes. I was expecting like 10. I looked at the time thing up there. I don't know if you can see. It says that it's going to get here in like 24 minutes. I'm just like, bruh. But I guess I have to wait for that. I'm going to go get ramen so I'm really excited. So I'll see you guys then. And just like that, my little trip throughout the muni system here in San Francisco is done. I think it was really funny that I got kicked out. I didn't know I couldn't record there. Thankfully, they didn't ask me for my video to delete anything and I was kind of done filming for the most part. So it worked out for me. We'll see if I can assemble the pieces and make something out of this. If not, then it's whatever. It was still a fun experience. And we'll see what happens. Well you guys, that's kind of all for me today. It was really fun bringing you guys along to this crazy trip. A lot of things happened. Remember to be kind, have an open mind. We'll see you next time.