On my way home from work I almost got killed by Muni bus, who would had thought? For the record if you were wondering, yes, I was speeding. However speeding or not, that Muni driver could had been paying better attention.

Riding in the city, whether it is on a bicycle or motorcycle, is dangerous as one has to look out for all the moving hazards on the road such as: taxi drivers speeding and cutting through traffic, the Uber and Lyft drivers that are paying attention to their app rather than the road, the pedestrians that have ‘the right of way’ and put their life at risk by ignoring the oncoming traffic. Then there is Muni. For the most Muni busses and trains are not an issue. In fact I feel that the tracks for the trains and people running after their bus prove to be more dangerous than the busses themselves.

To my surprised the #18 Muni bus driver did not notice me one bit, even with all honking as I was doing (but honestly a squeak from a mouse is much louder). There I was with no outs as the bus blocked out my chances of going right, and then there was an oncoming jeep that eliminated the left side. In a situation like this with no outs, I had the choice to either slow down or go faster. At first I tried to slow down but I immediately felt that if I squeezed harder on the hand brakes and pushed down some more on the foot brakes that I would lose total control. In fact, you can hear the tires a skid a bit from downshifting. I said fuck it let off the brakes and just cruised. Judging the speed of the bus, my own speed, and the space that I had to squeeze between the jeep and the bus, I knew that the fit was going to be tight! Once I got past the bus, I let the driver know how I felt.

I’m not  going to lie, I was going to pull a Rev Bomb and bust the bus’s sideview mirror! I balled my hand into a fist and cocked my arm back but couldn’t find mirror in such a short period of time, plus I was focusing on the road in front of me. If it were a car that mirror would had been gone but since the vehicle was a bus, that mirror gets to live another day.

The Muni bus driver is not totally at fault and I do hope that who ever they are, that they don’t get fired if SFMTA see’s my video. And I’m not saying that all the blame lies with me for speeding. We were both at fault, it takes two to tango. We just need to learn from this experience and move on.

At the end of the day, I’m just glad I didn’t die, crashed, or totaled my bike from this accident that didn’t happen. And thank you to that jeep for giving me more space to breathe. Anyway, ride safe and ride your ride.

P.S. I’m starting a podcast….