"Akit is the man. He knows Clipper." (spenta)
"It’s a fantastic blog for any San Franciscan."
(Kevin)
"Your blog is always on point, and well researched!" (Nina Decker)
"Everyone's favorite volunteer public policy consultant..." (Eve Batey, SF Appeal)
"You are doing a great job keeping on top of Translink stuff. Keep up the good work!"
(Greg Dewar, N Judah Chronicles)
"...I don't even bother subscribing anywhere else for my local public transportation info. You have it all..."
(Empowered Follower)
"If anyone at City Hall wants to make public transit better for all San Franciscans, it would be wise to follow Akit religiously...
or, better yet, give him a job."
(Brock Keeling, SFist)

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Finally, Brighter News on Muni Fare Gate Problems



Last night, KTVU's 10PM news reported some good news on the progress to fix the new Muni gate problems.

One of the good parts of the news is the SFMTA will not pay for the fixing, it is the responsibility of the gate manufacturers, Cubic Transportation Systems. Hopefully the software fix the company is working on will help stop or heavily reduce the problem of simply waving their hand over the optical sensor.

If Cubic and Muni wants an easy way to solve the sensor problem, just add a button on each gate exit point. When a person wants to exit, they push the button and the gate opens for them. The distance between the gate doors and the end of the gate is too far to reach the button, so it's impossible to "buzz" yourself in.

For you critics who thinks tagging-out is the answer, that's just absolutely impossible. Muni drivers will still issue paper transfers, so how will those passengers exit the system?


Time for some common sense talk...
A random person was interviewed by the news agency and he is complaining that it takes three days to add value online.

Someone get me a hammer, I want to slam it on the common sense button that's buzzing loudly...

You are in a metro station being interviewed, and you bitch and moan about the 72 hour rule? Just feet away from you is a Muni ticketing machine that can add value to your Clipper card and it's available INSTANTLY. Oh, did I forget? They also accept credit cards, just like online.

7 comments:

Raymond said...

I think they could keep the sensor to exit but also add a pressure plate to ensure that someone is actually present on that side.

Anonymous said...

I found an interesting "feature" of the new Clipper gates this morning. I was exiting the station behind someone far enough that the gate started to close before I reached it. When I walked into the gate area, the gate froze in a half-open position and wouldn't move.

BCon said...

Yeah, I had posted a few comments elsewhere about just activating the "tag out" feature on the gates, but realized today that that would never work since people paying on the surface with cash would still have paper transfers. Ooops!

However, I still think this whole story was blown way out of proportion, especially given that it was even EASIER to fare evade before by using the swing gates that were unlocked and open all the time (as you have mentioned in previous posts), which since installation of the new gates are alarmed and locked.

Overall, I think the new fare gates are a HUGE improvement. All the positives (style, functionality, being able to use multiple payment methods, etc.), far outweigh the negatives (a little slow to respond to card/open & wave hand to fare evade [which is being fixed]).

sfsmskater said...

I added $25 to my clipper card 2 months ago and I still don't see it in my account.

Akit said...

Can you clarify: "I still don't see it in my account?"

Are you talking about noticing your balance on your transactions when using the card, or viewing it online?

News Princess said...

Hi dear Akit,

Very thankful that you visit my blog and warning me that my video has the copyright problem. Thank you very much.

I am the university student and I do the news because that is our homework, and i am learning how to make the news, form the school and also form you today. Sorry to use your pics without mention the pics source. Really sorry about that. If you agree to let me use your pics, I will write out the pics source and make a LINKS to your pics. And it's very thankful for me, a student, who tries very hard to finish my homework.

Thank you very much and sorry about everything make you unhappy.

Have a nice day!

Stephanie Huang

Akit said...

Stephanie:

Your YouTube video still has the copyrighted content in the video's 26 and 28 seconds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbHw5bq0sfM

Either delete the video, or delete and re-upload without the offending content.