— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
Because riding Muni's wheeled nutbin isn't fun enough, a group of feral teens have discovered a way to “kick open” the back doors of the buses and jump out of them while traveling at top speed (25mph). From The Examiner:
Between May 30 and June 9, there were 15 recorded incidents of passengers illegally opening doors and jumping out of Muni buses between stops. The infractions — which are now being investigated by police as criminal acts — were recorded at locations from Silver Terrace to the Outer Richmond district. The majority took place on Muni's 14-Mission Limited line, although the most recent incident occurred Sunday night on the 38-Geary. […]
At first, Biel said, police thought it was passengers hastily looking to exit after mistakenly boarding an express bus, since most of the incidents occurred on the 14-Mission Limited. But now they're investigating the possibility of malicious mischief among a group of passengers.
According to a wheelman interviewed by The Chronicle, the sport may or may not be called “riding the surf,” coming from the participant's tendency to hang off the side of the bus before bailing.
This “incredibly stupid and callous” behavior has police scratching their heads, wondering how young men in the prime of their life could possibly engage in such life-endangering activities. One theory is that the doors never opened at their stop in the first place and they just want to get off; another suggests they've committed crimes and looking to escape capture.
Of course, anyone who has ever ridden a yellow school bus before knows the allure of opening the emergency door and diving out the back—earning you the undue respect of your peers while simultaneously escaping that afternoon's would-be bullies. It only makes sense that such heroics have made their way to Municipal Transport.
Comments (7)
Stupid kids in germany have been doing this for decades. They call it “subway surfing”, as they do this on subway trains. Pry open the doors and hang on next to the train. They get killed on a regular basis, too.
Being charged with “malicious mischief” is in itself, rad as fuck.
Nothing wrong with a bit of natural selection.
This is what you get for letting those kids get a free ride. *cough*CAMPOS*cough*
We used to crawl up into the wheel wells and ride for free when I was a kid. Almost everybody I grew up with is either dead or in prison now.
I’ve ridden through the tunnels in between the breda cars before. Pretty stupid now, but at the time it was thrilling!
I once saw someone punch out the window of an express bus in Oakland, and then jump through it. He had been requesting a stop that the express didn’t make, and then took matters into his own hands.