San Francisco has several different modes of public transportation. Their only subway is called the BART or Bay Area Rapid Transit. However it's more of the equivalent of the LIRR or NJ Transit, i.e. it brings people from the greater urban area to the city center and is priced by zones. Besides that there is the MUNI or Municipal Railways, which is a fucking mess because it literally incorporates everything else. First we have their famous cable car system, which is mostly used by tourists but is the only thing that can climb steep hills. We have then the trolleys, which have tracks on the street. On major roads they have their own designated lane, but half the time they share it with traffic and generally cause a mess. I've also noticed half of their vehicles were bought from other cities that were phasing out their trolley systems, so when I'm waiting for one I see it's headed for Chicago or Berlin and not conveying any useful information about where I need to go. And even though MUNI stands for railways, for some asinine reason it also covers the bus system, which I've divided in half: normal ones that run on gas like any sane bus and ones that run via electrical wires. Literally hanging over the streets are these giant wires and the buses have these antennas attached to them in order to power the bus. Whenever one passes you by, you can hear the zapping of the wires.

But today I wanna talk about the trolleys. As I've said, sometimes they have their own central lane and sometimes they're in the street. On bigger streets they even are provided with a platform. But unfortunately the steps are too low for it. So their trolleys literally have a staircase that rises and lowers depending on what section of the route their on. When they're by platforms, the stairs rise to create a flat surface. And when they're on the streets, they lower to create steps.

I wish someone told me this shit beforehand. Here I am, on a crowded trolley by the doors, when suddenly I heard this announcement. It's as garbled as any other NYC subway. Then I heard this horrible screeching noise, which I'm assuming is their equivalent of a warning signal. All I know is it sounded like a cat being tortured. And then suddenly the stable floor I was standing on collapsed under my feet to create some steps. I'm freaking out, wondering whether this thing is falling apart.

As convoluted as the NYC subway system is, I'd take that shit over this crazy madness any day of the week.