All door boarding soon; 10 more fare inspectors

April 30th, 2012

The board of supervisors will vote before July 1 to approve all door boarding on Muni’s buses. Riders will have to tag Clipper when boarding the rear of the bus,  provide proof of payment, or suffer a $100 citation. As part of the plan, 10 more fare inspectors will be hired, costing the agency $700k. The upside is big, however, since all door boarding could boost service speed by 1 mph, a savings of $76m a year.

Sup. Wiener: Muni can’t afford free youth rides

April 9th, 2012

In SFGate’ open forum, SF Supervisor Scott Wiener says that Muni simply can’t afford to shell out $8M for free rides for all youth’s when the SFMTA doesn’t even have the funding to provide essential operations and maintenance. Supervisor Wiener says that  Muni needs to focus on having a more reliable system first, and that “Every time the system melts down because a switch fails, a vehicle door won’t close, stairs won’t rise, or a derailment occurs, you can be assured that the problem results from Muni not having the funds to maintain its infrastructure properly.”

All aboard by any door

March 19th, 2012

Starting July 1, Muni will legalize all door boarding on buses. Thanks to Clipper, all door boarding will be a practical solution and reduce boarding times further. A 1 mph increase in Muni’s operating speed could save the SFMTA $76m a year.

Mayor Lee wants to slash youth pass cost

March 16th, 2012

The new proposed youth pass would be $5, offered free for qualified low income youth, and free for all youth. Supervisor David Campos is proposing the measure, which would cost $8m a year with a 2 or 3 year pilot program. Maylor Lee supports the proposal as long as the funding source is stable and does not impact the SFMTA’s budget.

Free Muni for kids? SFMTA, supervisors negotiate possible pilot program

February 12th, 2012

A pilot program to offer free Muni service to San Francisco youth under 17 is being considered by SFMTA. The program would issue free Clipper cards for students. Most of the cost would be covered by regional and city sales tax money, but SFMTA would have to cover $1.7 million in lost revenue.

The proposed budget also does not include any additional security cost. As noted in the article, “Campos said what’s still to be determined is whether participants could be kicked out of the program if they misbehave on the city’s buses and trains.” As all commuters know, this is a real issue and SFMTA should not approve any free-rides program without a plan to address it.

Another concern is that the proposal would use Prop K sales tax money from the SF County Transportation Authority, which was approved by the voters to cover capital expenses such as the long-delayed Geary and Van Ness BRT projects.

Free Muni for kids is a nice idea, but SFMTA should take these concerns seriously before approving it.