The 51 By Night
By Serene Fang
A few minutes before midnight, AC Transit's Line 51M bus arrives at the Berkeley Marina. All four passengers get off the bus. On the pier, the sound of lapping water and the voices of teenagers echo in the dark. One passenger, a woman in her forties with an Eastern European accent and a bleached blond ponytail that reaches to her waist, strolls to the pier with an older man, talking loudly and laughing.
"Too cold for lovemaking. It's too cold for lovemaking," mutters another passenger, a heavy set, elderly African American woman who watches the couple move down the dimly lit pier. She wanders near the water's edge, muttering again, "Ocean air, ocean air."
The marina is the northern terminus for the 51M, a bus line that runs an 18-mile route through Berkeley, Oakland, and Alameda. It is one of five AC Transit lines that operate on a 24-hour schedule. Along the route, the bus stops near eight schools, five libraries, four BART stations, three hospitals, and a country club.
"This line runs through just about anything and just about anywhere - different types of neighborhoods, people, things like that," says Archie, a 13-year veteran driver who just began working the route.
As the bus heads away from the marina around 12:20a.m.and approaches the University of California, Berkeley, the passengers get younger. At Center and Shattuck, two female students get on the bus, one blond, one brunette, both with cherubic faces. They are sophomores who have just returned from a baseball game in San Francisco. A young and grungy male passenger tries to catch their attention.
"Excuse me," he says to the blond, "Can I touch your hair?"
"No, you can't," she says, turning back to her companion.
"It looks really silky and soft," he says, trying again.
"It's not. It's really nappy," she assures him.
One stop later, he gets off the bus and wishes them a beautiful evening. The students giggle to each other and exchange looks. The bus driver smiles.
Heading into Oakland along College Avenue, the 51M sheds passengers carrying backpacks and wearing glasses. As the bus merges onto Broadway, it begins to fill with male passengers who arrive in clusters of twos and threes, speaking in Spanish. At Broadway and Grand, a young woman steps onto the bus. She is thin, clutching a small purse and wearing skin-tight jeans that are laced up the sides with leather straps. As the bus pulls away from the curb, she remains standing. She hovers over the driver, speaking in a low voice and gripping the fare box. He speaks to her gently. A few blocks later she gets off with a transfer stub. "She let me know she didn't have any change," Archie says later. "Somebody left her stranded there and she was trying to get back to International and 21st. You get a lot of that…but I been out here long enough to know that you give people the benefit of the doubt. I ain't never seen her before. Long as I know they aren't riding on a consistent basis and giving me a different story every time, I don't have a problem with that. It is not for me to judge."