Muni Dead Pool: Will Your Line Be Cut Next?

Can't we start some kind of lobby for Muni riders? I'd chip in.

Matt, you and the SFA are to be commended for doing this story. You've done a great job clearly outlining just how bad things will get if we don't plug the hole left by Arnie and Gavin and the Democrats in the Legislature, and make changes at Muni to ensure we have a functional system that's actually useful. A useful transit system actually benefits those who must use a car, as it means fewer unnecessary cars are on the road so contractors, etc. can get around.

It is very telling that this analysis appears here, where there's the idea of actual reporting of news that affects people's lives is worth persuing, vs. print publications more interested in ideological battles or sucking up to suburbia or other nonsense. I'm posting a link to my site and encourage people to read this.

Who exactly is against making it a hard-fisted, enforceable rule to make passengers only get on in the front door? Muni estimates 10% of all fares disappear this way and that would make quite a difference toward closing this hole.

Go to New York and find out what happens if you try to get in the back door. No one will know what the hell you are doing and you'll rightfully get yelled at by the driver. SF needs to train its citizens the way NYers are trained: If your legs work, get on in the front, pay the fare, walk to the back and get off in the back. It barely matters if you are elderly, have children or if the bus is packed. That's the way it goes, period.

Which politician is against this easy fix? I want to hear their slippery slope argument and commit their name to memory so I don't ever vote for them.

The long and the short of it is that we're fucked. It's not just Mayor Hair Gel that's fighting additional funding to MUNI, but his sycophant Ms. Chu, and likely Elsbernd and Alioto. And, perhaps, with good reason. Simply throwing more money at MUNI won't ensure it goes to good use. I like the idea of demand pricing for roads, parking spaces, perhaps even for bus fare.

However, as much as I'm a big fan, demand pricing won't get MUNI out of its own way. It won't stop the drivers from patronizing the corner stores in the middle of the run. It won't stop the L-Owl drivers (who are already collecting a hefty "night" wage premium) from regularly skipping stops. It won't magically fix the train control that's never worked properly (and failed spectacularly twice in my outings to the FiDi this morning). More money won't fix the demented process by which the subway to nowhere was conceived. That cutting the 28L is even an option goes to show how out of touch the powers that be really are. Service along the 28 has been cut on a nearly annual basis as long as I've lived in District 4. Until some sort of constructive remedy is concocted, throwing money at MUNI won't help a damn thing.

@irrelevance Pretty much anyone with half a brain is against front door only boarding. Even on relatively lightly used Golden Gate Transit, front door only boarding increases dwell times dramatically. Ideally transit vehicles will be en route most of the time, and stopped at a given stop for a vast minority of the time. Shorter dwell times mean more stops can be made in the same amount of time. This means either additional stops can be used, or one vehicle can serve more riders. Longer dwell times mean more vehicles and employees are needed to service the same amount of riders.

There are TransLink readers at every door on the buses, thus you can pay at any door. Why should someone who already has valid fare media (or a TL card) have to wait in line behind a bunch of people who are digging for change in their purses or pockets? It's a waste of time.

@Xenu Theoretically that's what Rescue Muni is. In practice they're the most flaccid group of advocates I've ever seen.

Muni is committed to allowing users to use the back door, too.

Whatever happened to Rescue Muni? Are they still around?

I hardly believe the 39-Coit will go away, but cutting service is a possibility. That line is the only lifeline to Coit Tower (car parking hell).

There needs to be some organized effort to start making some serious changes, starting from the top of the SFMTA food chain, Nathaniel Ford. I'd bet in this economy, the city can hire a decent manager for a 75K salary vs. the 200,000+ bloated salary Ford is getting.

Of course they're still around! According to their events page, their next meeting is on July 14th, 2008.

@Xenu define around. It's been about two years since they backed the latest symbolic MUNI proposition (Prop A). A quick look at their blog shows it to be a mostly content light affair with the occasional news piece. The Transbay Blog tends to have more in depth articles and jumping off points for proper activism (despite their strong anti-BART bias).

@Akit Try $340,000 on for size.

P.S. Metro fail going on twenty minutes now... not running in auto mode from Montgomery to West Portal. Have fun this evening! The MTA's latest alert is that Golden Gate Ferry service is slower than usual.

Small point: Gavin doesn't drive an SUV, he has an SFPD chauffeur drive it for him.

@Alex Zepeda
"There are TransLink readers at every door on the buses, thus you can pay at any door."
- Or someone could just walk in the back door without paying for anything which happens A LOT. Please ride the 30 or 45 sometime.

"Why should someone who already has valid fare media (or a TL card) have to wait in line behind a bunch of people who are digging for change in their purses or pockets?"
- They don't. People who pay in cash stand on the right of the front door to pay, other people flash their pass or tap the Translink card on the left in every bus I've ever been in. It's not a single line through the front door.

@Eve Batey
FTA: "As you noted, Muni does have a front door only boarding policy on buses. We have looked at ways to decrease time spent on boarding, including all-door boarding. If we are able to do that in the future, the rear door transponders would be necessary."....
"Muni will be unrolling a back door entry plan for TransLink users in the future"
- Fantastic! I love the idea of allowing people to electronically pay or make a beeping noise to say they have already paid. I'm not against allowing anyone to ever enter through the back door. I'm against it when there is no (reliable) way to pay or verify that you have paid while using the back door. Walking through with your Fast Pass in your purse isn't good enough because there is no way to verify that there is anything there.

This is the way it is in SF: You don't want to pay? Pick a stop with a crowd that charges in the back door, like 4th and Market. No one will stop you and ride away. Until we fix this problem somehow, the Muni will have a minimum of 10% fare evading riders. Stop making it so ridiculously easy for people to get a free ride.

This is the best piece I have ever read in the SF Appeal.

Isn't the answer a more dedicated funding source for Muni?

Also, I thought the congestion fee would apply to those who drive downtown. Who would add $10 to their registration, when the original idea was to penalize those who drove downtown. We ought not to penalize those who register a car and garage it (for example, the elderly who drive less frequently than commuters).

Honestly, Translink cards and what door you enter isn't the answer to the service cut problem.

And why doesn't anyone take on driver work rules? Remember: no sacred cows!

A congestion fee usually refers to a toll that you pay to drive across some line into a downtown area, not an increase in new car registration fees.

Muni has gotten so bad, I got a car again after 14 years without. I still ride transit most of the time, but there are many things Muni just makes too difficult. I think a $10 vehicle registration surcharge is reasonable, but they also need to assess downtown businesses, who are the main beneficiaries of a transit system such as Muni. The burden should be distributed among business, riders and car owners. As a downtown resident, I would likely be hit on all 3 assessments, but it would be worth it for a functional transit system that makes living here better for residents, businesses and visitors. As for Ford, he is a clown, a total failure, and should be sent packing, but (Akit) if you think they can get anybody competent in that position in San Francisco for $75,000, I am pretty sure you don't actually live here at all.

can you find out if they laid off any drivers while we are all sacrificing with less services? i sure hope so or heads should roll at the top of muni. no n judah on the weekend and one single car t every 30 minutes sucks ass over here in south beach/mission bay. that better be saving us shitloads of money.

i just had an idea about how to close the budget gap with more parking revenue. outlaw handicapped parking in the city. handicapables shouldn't be fucking driving anyway!

We'll know in a couple of months how much money Muni is saving with the service cuts. They're keeping very close tabs on that.

I do believe there were layoffs recently, and will likely be more soon. But! Laying people off is often a lousy way to save a few bucks. The money that you save in salaries can be offset by lost efficiency. You're paying a little bit less money, but a lot less work is getting done.

It seems if a bus is not totally packed from front to rear then it's not making any dough. I don't have any solutions or suggestions on how to fix the system. I have only my own approach to Muni: I don't ride it. A lot of people I know don't ride it.

Thanks for the story, but how did you come up with that crazy infographic? The bus lines seem to be in random order. The huge arrow alongside the list makes you think they've been ordered from most to least risk.

Sarcasm ahead: Maybe we should start Community Benefit Districts to create neighborhood shuttle services.

Seriously though, the Coit tower bus should probably just be a shuttle operated by park and recreation with its own fare to cover the costs.

Most governments only need to look at the General Motors story to figure out what ultimately needs to happen in regards to the costs. The Financial Times front page kinda says it all - "US Public Pensions Facing $2 trillion shortfall" (link: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bd1c2552-f966-11de-8085-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1 ) ... and let's not forget a few more trillion for the promised other post employment benefits like health insurance and such. Local governments looking for a hail mary Federal Single-Payer Health Insurance savior probably need to figure out Plan B.

Good luck with any fee/tax increase ballot initiatives this year if there is no serious effort on the part of electeds to reign in the costs of labor. I'm not optimistic about any of the fee/tax increases in 2010 - folks are strapped for cash, and aren't about to give up even more of their money for governments at the voting booth.

For San Francisco, we need to get a congestion charge for driving into downtown during the rush hours. We need to remove bus stops on every block (easy for me to say since my Rincon Hill neighborhood doesn't really have any bus stops save the Embarcadero metro line, the Transbay Terminal starting-point buses, and a few stops along 2nd Street - meanwhile, everybody lives beetween 2nd and Steuart Streets in Rincon Hill). We need demand pricing for parking meters - those SFPark meters used by the Port seem to be working out fine. We need to charge handicapped drivers for parking at meters too ... I don't get the "free parking all day" thing - they can park in a garage if they need to park their car all day long.

Anyway, that's my armchair quarterbacking .... Good article, SFAppeal/Matt!

They look like they are in order from most trouble to least trouble and the colors represent the changes that were made to each line last month.

The list is ordered from most to least risk.

Shocking how muni is bleeding money. Where does all this money go to?

Some thoughts gained from riding on other transit systems:
1. It's okay if it's more expensive. It just has to work. I'd expect that even if you're poor, an efficient transit system would be worth another dollar. You could make lunch at home or something with the time saved.
2. The enter front, exit back system works well, and doesn't slow things down. I've been on packed buses in Asia with wall to wall people, and it was still incredibly efficient. Right now, Muni lets people enter/exit on either one. *That* slows things down when you have to wait for people to walk out the front door, then the new riders get on. WTF is that? People just don't care.

Sometimes it's fun (if the other person doesn't look smelly or deranged or elderly) to step in the front door right away and make exiting people climb around you.