> Safety is an issue everywhere (and certainly for tram enthusiasts) but this does not apply to cable cars. Passengers are expected to hang out of the moving vehicles when it is busy. Paradoxically, visiting a depot is prohibited because of the many dangers...

It is assumed that the paradoxical (good choice of a word!) clash of safety attitudes around cable cars, and absence of safety requirements is explained by the same factor, that defines... safety requirements elsewhere. The insurance. Or the insurance rates to be exact. Which are higher for cable cars thus providing for relaxed safety rules, and lower for other modes of transportation thus providing for strict safety rules.

To be fair, I just repeated a 20+ years old stereotype that I heard somewhere within the industry long time ago. I was never able to confirm the insurance-rate theory with MUNI. However, I know that cable car personnel enjoys many 'excuses' as per their union due to heavy pressure jobs. One of such 'excuses' are relaxed requirements regarding safety responsibility. That is if a customer falls off the cable car, the staff is not responsible.

Quote (Ymtram (Yury LRTA), 27.07.2022):
> That is if a customer falls off the cable car, the staff is not responsible.

Should I lose my balance with my heavy photo bag, I will of course not hold the staff responsible but rather the MUNI.
This does not apply in a depot: this is not public territory and cannot be compared to a vehicle.
For the first time, I did indeed just fall down somewhere: the sun was perpendicular and I just stumbled (on a pavement) on 'something' that I didn't see (because of the bright light). Stupid of me, luckily my photo equipment was not damaged and I have long since recovered, although I didn't really look like much the first few days...
I am "sporty" enough to blame myself and not, like Calimero, blame others.
But in the case of a falling passenger from the MUNI, I don't think there are many judges who will blame the passenger, especially when this was his assigned place.

While on the subject:

> Among U.S. mass transportation systems the cable cars have the most accidents per year and per vehicle mile, with 126 accidents and 151 injuries reported in the 10 years ending 2013.In the three years ending 2013 the city paid some $8 million to settle four dozen cable car accident claims.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Franci...0claims