Picking up from where other San Francisco public transit historians left off, Peter Felton's Daily Public Transit Ridership: The Inside Scoop gives readers an acute internal perspective as to the routine external operations of the late 20th-early 21st Century-era San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (or "Muni" as it is more commonly nicknamed). Ranging from vehicular characteristics to urban development above and below ground level, Felton provides intricate details into the life and times of the "average Joe" public transit rider traveling around the City of San Francisco by bus or subway train. With a majority of the information taken strictly from a young lifetime of permanent public custom, Felton colorfully outlines the awe and wonder arising from riding this means of public service day-in-and-day-out, acknowledging realities and comparing-contrasting past, present, and future transit modalities drawn completely from personal experience and observation-yet portrayed entirely on a "general basis."
While the public transit system in San Francisco has been explored before, Peter Felton explores the more recent history of the system and does so in a unique way in Daily Public Transit Ridership: The Inside Scoop. Felton focuses on the era of the San Francisco transit system that he knows first hand, the late 1980's through to current times. Readers will learn much of interest from the book. Felton discusses the sweeping wide changes the system has made, like changing routes and updated vehicles, to the minutia of upgrades, like different color schemes for the vehicles to tweaks to platforms. These are very much things that the average rider will not have even thought of. A book like this must be well-researched and full of facts to succeed, and Felton has certainly done his homework. There is no shortage of verifiable facts that Felton has taken from his own experience and resources that he has thoroughly researched.
Still, such a work could be boring or inaccessible to the average reader, someone who is not especially interested in transit services beyond how to buy their fare and where to get off to reach their destination. Where Felton truly shines in his ability to make this information accessible to the everyday rider. He does so through his own stories of riding the transit system and his considerable talent for humor. His own stories will draw in the average reader and by using humor, he puts them at ease, so they can absorb some of his vast knowledge on the transit system. By using such a tactic, Felton does an expert job of educating his reader on the San Francisco transit system over the last three decades and does his part in forwarding the cause of a sustainable mass transit for all.
This old school public transit fanatic adores this book!
Yes, I am one of those typical, eccentric, old-age dudes who lives for public transportation and nothing else. But as much as I adore everything of yesteryear more than life itself, I truly have to give Peter Felton his props on providing both the literary and public transit worlds with an updated outlook on the relatively current offerings of public transportation--specifically those comprising public mobility via Muni in the city of San Francisco, Peter Felton's hometown and dwelling.
Having read pretty much all of the books written in years prior to Felton's about generations of public transit vehicles and their corresponding systems of operation in generations that came of age before the young adult Felton himself, I must say that it is a welcome sight to see not only the young people in today's hectic world showing appreciation for a public service publicly, but also that someone like Felton took the initiative to put his respect for and tremendous knowledge of the modern day era of (San Francisco) public transportation down on paper! I think it is safe to say that Felton achieved his goal of penning a perennial classic literary work highlighting the numerous achievements and breakthroughs of late 20th-early 21st Century (1970s-early 2010s) transportation and its corresponding technology, bringing a much needed "upgrade" to the literary loire of public transportation chronicles at large. I agree with Felton in that so many previous books (great as they all are from cover to cover) do tend to romanticize the earliest chapters of public transit history without doing the more contemporary timeframe justice in their historical examinations.
Apart from being an extremely fast reader and quick learner myself, what kept me glued to this book without being able to put it down once I started reading was Mr. Felton's enthusiasm for his written content. As Felton mentions in the book's back cover summary, all of the information contained within this advanced manual for San Francisco Muni was drawn from his own upbringing in the City by the Bay and lifelong love of public transportation that propelled him to ride it day-in-and-day-out without regret. Hence, the tone of each highly informative chapter in the book shows Felton's utmost, undying excitement for the Muni system as a whole no matter what angle you are looking at it from. His humorous approach to chapter titles, commentary on notable aspects of the spotlighted public transportation, and overall sunny anecdotal aura in an otherwise foggy city, make for a most enjoyable read and learning experience about the astounding glory present within the everyday pastime of riding public transportation near and far. As for "the inside scoop of riding public transportation", Felton takes this term literally by providing readers with acute glimpses into how the changing interiors of subway stations, vehicles, and driver compartments have looked and operated over time. As evidenced by his attention to detail, Felton is a very observant rider of his immediate surroundings and must possess a unique photographic memory of what he sees whenever he hops onboard any given public transit vehicle!
Thank you, Peter Felton, for serving as the voice of the latest and in your opinion, greatest, generation of San Francisco Bay Area public transportation! This old geezer salutes you with the hat off of his marble bald head.
