Pick your door to board starting July 1

June 28th, 2012

This Sunday, Muni’s all door boarding policy officially starts. Muni will have more inspectors to check for those who don’t pay, increasing from 42 to 52 officers. With 30% of Muni’s time spent boarding passengers, boarding through any door on buses could save the agency as much as $76m per year by speeding up average service by 1mph.

SFWeekly: The sad state of SFMTA’s vehicle maintenance

June 18th, 2012

SFWeekly has a detailed article on the deteriorating state of the SFMTA’s bus and rail fleet. Duct taped buses, garbage bags covering high voltage pantograph wiring, and rubber bands holding up roof ladders are discussed. According to the article, it takes as many as 5 workers to change a part on a bus, and there are no modern inventory controls such as bar coding in place.  All these deferred maintenance problems cause delays, dangerous equipment malfunctions, and even fatal accidents.

SFMTA’s on-time rate has rounding error

May 18th, 2012

Under city law, Muni is  considered on-time if a bus or train is no more than one minute early or four minutes late. Due to rounding, any time after the minute is rounded down, so a bus or train could be measured as being 4 minutes and 59 seconds late, but still be considered “on-time”. Based on research from the Bay Citizen, the actual Q4 2011 on-time rate was 61.4%, not 71%.

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.

SFMTA to vote on sharing on time records

April 3rd, 2012

Today the SFMTA board will vote on being more open about route on time information. The quarterly reports will also include revised goals involving customer service, maintenance, and other objectives. Currently, the public can view a daily run report on the SFMTA site.