ROLLING INTO SAN Francisco’s new bus terminal has all the vibes of docking with a googie space station—the weird, special bridge into the hangar, the orange color accents behind a white superstructure, glowing information screens everywhere. The heiroglyphically obtuse wayfinding signage only adds to the effect. I may have gotten on a bus in the East Bay, but I’m disembarking on Space Station V, in transit to Clavius.
That’s no Moon. It’s the “Salesforce Transit Center” (owing to a naming-rights deal with the company that owns the skyscraper next door), a $2.26 billion hub for the city’s Muni buses, as well as buses from across the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges—and Greyhound. Some day, if all goes as planned, it’ll be where California’s commuter and high-speed rail lines arrive in San Francisco.
