For years walking home or waiting for the bus I would see bus stops for the 88 marked in the same locations as the 17, 28, and 18 lines. I’ve lived in the southwest corner of San Francisco followed by the adjoining area of Daly City for the past four years, yet I’ve seen this bus only one time.

The sign on the bus said BART shuttle, and it was driving on Lake Merced Boulevard, on the far West side of the city. There is only one other route that services this street. It seemed like it would be a convenient route if I could ever figure out how to get on it.

I looked up the schedule to find it only runs Eastbound in the morning and Westbound in the evenings, between Balboa Park BART and John Muir Drive, on the extreme southwest end of the city. I headed to the Balboa Park BART station and, naively, waited on the side of the street that westbound buses pick up on. I was there 2 minutes before the bus was schedule to leave but figured that it had come early and I missed it.

When 20 minutes had passed and I didn’t see the next bus I began to wonder if I hadn’t looked at the map closely enough. I looked across the street and saw the bus leaving without me. It turns out that it goes East for one block before turning to eventually go West. There was no way I could cross the four lanes of busy traffic to reach it before it left. Cursing, I crossed and waited another 30 minutes until the next one was scheduled to come. Lesson learned: study the map closely to make sure that I know which side of the street to wait on.

On my way to cross the street I saw a man with large sunglasses and a white-tipped cane walk straight into the traffic I was avoiding by walking to the end of the block. His cane was not to the ground and it appeared as if he was sighted by the way he was dodging the cars. When he got to the median he waited for about 30 seconds before switching to appearing blind, cane to the ground, waiting for the traffic to dissipate before crossing.

I don’t know if this was his way of getting a reduced fare (75 cents vs. two dollars), or if he was simply a delusional blind man.

I waited, then waited, then waited some more. I broke a half dollar for someone who couldn’t use it in the change box. I declined an offer to buy someone’s (wonderful, I’m sure) rap CD. I saw a woman exclaim “There’s our bus. Woo hoo!” while pumping her fists in the air. I feel like doing that sometimes, but I suppose it’s only acceptable to do that if you are talking to a four-year-old, as she was.

Finally, I saw my bus approaching. Since I had only seen this bus empty I expected there to be few takers. To my surprise, there were 20 of us on the bus.

As we traveled West the bus emptied pretty quickly. We drove through the Outer Mission towards Park Merced, and by the time we reached Sickles and Mission it was just me and a mustached gentleman sitting directly across from me in the back of the empty bus. He was reading a copy of the Examiner. When he finished he moved on to staring at me.

I know I was sitting right across from him, but I felt like I was doing a pretty good job of uncomfortably avoiding looking at him, and I didn’t understand why he couldn’t reciprocate.

The bus driver looked in her mirror then turned around and yelled to the back “Park Merced?” I was the only one in view. I yelled “end of the line” twice before she could hear me. I decided this would be an opportune time to change seats without making it so entirely obvious that he was creeping me out.

The driver skipped the entire middle portion of the line that goes through the Park Merced neighborhood. If the mustached man had needed to get off anywhere but the end line he was going to be out of luck unless he spoke up. Since he got off at the last stop with me, I guess it wasn’t an issue.

I now know why this lined remained a mystery for so long – it runs at hours I generally am not hanging around its bus stops, and it probably skipped them anyway.

This line has the potential to be useful for commuters who live in the Southwest end of the city going East. Muni Fastpass holders are allowed to ride BART inside the city for free. By taking one bus to the last station in San Francisco residents would have quick access to a faster transportation network without the additional cost that going to the closer Daly City BART produces.

The reality is that this line probably has very little ability to help people who are getting to work because the chances that the bus might skip your stop or be off schedule are very real. It has much more use commuting home during rush hour (4-6 p.m.), as the bus does arrive on time at Balboa Park BART, and once you’re on you know that your stop won’t get passed up.