<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.fogcityjournal.com/wordpress/2008/03/08/vandalism-prompts-officials-to-pull-hybrid-busesfrom-bayview-hunters-point-lines/">http://www.fogcityjournal.com/wordpress/2008/03/08/vandalism-prompts-officials-to-pull-hybrid-busesfrom-bayview-hunters-point-lines/</a><br>
<br>
<h2 align="center"><a
href="http://www.fogcityjournal.com/wordpress/2008/03/08/vandalism-prompts-officials-to-pull-hybrid-busesfrom-bayview-hunters-point-lines/"
rel="bookmark">Vandalism prompts officials to pull hybrid buses<br>
from Bayview-Hunters Point lines</a><br>
</h2>
<p><strong>
By Ashley Wright and Jesse Dungan</strong></p>
<p>March 8, 2008</p>
<p>Hybrid buses running through San Francisco’s Bayview-Hunters Point
District were removed Thursday to preserve driver and passenger safety,
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency officials said Friday.</p>
<p><span id="more-154"></span> Vandals have been accessing the bus’s
power switch through a panel door on the sides of the hybrid buses
running on the 54-Felton, MUNI spokesman Judson True said.</p>
<p>“The safety issue came to our attention and we addressed it in the
short term,” True said of pulling the buses.</p>
<p>A long-term solution to the problem may include adding locks to the
panel doors, he said. The cost of installing the locks would not be
significant, True said.</p>
<p>“Our first priority is making sure that our drivers, customers and
vehicles are safe,” he added.</p>
<p>Bus service has not been interrupted and is running regularly.</p>
<p>However, officials said Wednesday that the agency is working on an
increased police presence, which will include undercover officers on
buses, on the on the 44 O’Shaughnessy and 54-Felton lines running
through the Bayview-Hunters Point District due to a jump in violence on
the lines.</p>
<p>The decision was made by Municipal Transportation Authority
Executive Director Nathaniel Ford in conjunction with the Police
Department, according to True.</p>
<p>There have been 10 reported incidents of violence this year, which
have varied from operators being assaulted to vehicles being damaged by
thrown rocks, True said.</p>
<p>“We have seen an increase in these sorts of attacks over the last
two months and we wanted to let all of our stakeholders know we are
doing everything we can to keep customers and operators safe,” True
said.</p>
<p>Service was temporarily suspended on the 44-O’Shaughnessy and
54-Felton lines earlier in the year due to reported incidents,
according to True. He said that service is suspended on a case-by-case
basis.</p>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
"I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." – Che Guevara</pre>
</body>
</html>