Any 1970s SF bus riders / listeners out there?

Asked by jm3 (55

) August 7th, 2009

Were you in San Francisco in the mid to late 1970s, and if so: did the MUNI buses make the same sounds they do now? I’m curious after noticing that Gus Van Sant’s Milk features samples of MUNI buses in the ambient audio that sound curiously similar to the sounds made by modern MUNI buses. I’m wondering how authentic those sounds are.

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2 Answers

The muni buses have always made noises. I rode them a lot in the seventies.

basp (4811

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@jm3, I wasn’t around in the 70s, but are you referring to the electric trolleybuses, or diesel?

If electric, it’s possible that the mechanisms are all specialized enough that they’re the same then and now.

For what it’s worth, check out the list of historical buses On the MUNI fleet wikipedia page. See if you can find any of these older buses on youtube—e.g., searching Marmon-Herrington gets you this 1951 Marmon-Herrington trolleybus, perhaps similar to the ones used in SF.

lrk (757

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