Dear Nat Ford and Temporary SFMTA Chief Debra Johnson

Dear Nat Ford,

Today is your last day in office. Feeling good about getting out of your job? I think everyone else in this city will feel even better than you because the reign of Ford is ending.

I feel I speak for everyone when I say, bye bye and go away. We Muni passengers have suffered a lot with a system in shambles, major delays, a way too predictable delays on the metro system, and unions so out of control that it took voters to finally kick them in the ass (thanks Proposition G).

Oh, and don't forget CultureBus, San Francisco's famous taxpayer waste project. Let's not also forget the Central Subway project, in which some has called it the "Rose Pak subway."

So long! If you are going to stick around SF for a while, why not ride Muni on a daily basis and pay the jacked-up price of $62 a month that starts tomorrow?

Sincerely,
Akit & the fed-up citizens of San Francisco who is ready to party when you leave office at 5PM

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Who is replacing Nat Ford? It's Debra Johnson, the head of the taxicab and accessibility department of the SFMTA. Here's a letter for her:


Dear Interim SFMTA Chief Debra Johnson,

This is not the job for you. The taxicab commission is in turmoil with cab drivers pretty upset about the 5% credit card fees and being one of the most extremely regulated and expensive places to ride a cab in this city.

I remember talking to a cab driver in Las Vegas and he said that while Vegas is very regulated, he thought our city was outright nuts.

Basically, if you can't keep good control and keep the cabbies happy, how are you going to handle the additional responsibilities of being the super boss of Muni and the Department of Parking & Traffic?

Fix the taxicab problem first, then take a shot at being the boss of the conglomerate. If you are going to stick around and be the boss of the SFMTA for a while, remember to not be a puppet of the mayor; you serve the citizens of this fine city and when we detect bullshit, we point fingers at the mega boss.

Sincerely,
Akit & many others worried the SFMTA will never lower Muni pass prices

Time to Dismantle the SFMTA?

Here's a good question for everyone to think about... would you dismantle the SF Municipal Transportation Agency? Or as most of us locals call it, the SFMTA or the MTA.

I think it's time to break it apart. Since there's a big shakeup with management with Nat Ford leaving office on June 30th and the number two man (the boss of Muni) resigning, and the arbitrator kicking the union's ass, it's the perfect time.

Back in the good old days, Muni was it's own agency, DPT was under the police department riding three wheel motorcycles around the city, and the taxicab folks was just themselves. It wasn't until Nat Ford came along and combined the three agencies into one big conglomerate umbrella known as the SFMTA with a bloated $300,000+ salary.

We already knew the shit hit the fan with Muni long before the SFMTA was created; the infamous "Muni Meltdown" of 1998 caused the downward spiral did it's job well. But someone had to handle the cleaning of the fans, and who else but Nat Ford?

Yeah... Nat Ford, the man who had to control three agencies under one roof, and things didn't go so great under the SFMTA umbrella:

1. Muni has been the punching bag for the public for a long time, but these last few years has sucked the most with major pass hikes, cuts in service, a half-ass "restoration" of service, uncontrollable union until us citizens passed Proposition G, and lots more.
2. DPT just ain't cool anymore. Ever tried calling them to demand a car to be towed? I have, and they hung up on me.
3. The taxicab commission is just being bombarded by pissed-off cab drivers every single time there's a meeting, from medallions to 5% surcharges for credit cards.

Maybe it's time to split the three agencies and let them be themselves. Split Nat Ford's salary to pay appropriately to have one boss run each agency, and pray to god they won't be a puppet of the Mayor, like how Nat Ford was Newsom's puppet.

What's your thoughts?

Lastly, don't forget to "like" me on Facebook! The Complaint Department is there for your entertainment!

Dreams Do Come True! Muni Gets Major Ass Kicking

I dreamed of the day when the real owners of Muni kicks some serious ass...

It was really cool when the arbitrator kicked the Muni's drivers union's butt by forcing them to take the contract.

But it made it five million times sweeter with this news...

NAT FORD IS QUITTING! (Sources: Chronicle and Examiner)

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I wonder if the training bus accident photos also contributed to Nat Ford quitting his job? Or maybe it was my parody letter to the Washington D.C. Airport Authority?

It's time to celebrate! We should have a big public party to say, "Muni's reign of terror is over! The people have spoken!"

Dear Washington D.C. Airport Authority...

A lot of us know that Nat Ford's time with Muni is up as Washington D.C. is looking into hiring him. A lot of us don't like the agency (Muni) with the service cuts, an uncontrollable union, safety concerns, late or no-show buses, and that incident when the union told Cable Car operators to boycott (not participate) in the most recent bell ringing contest. It's time to get Nat Ford out of office and get someone more competent to take-over the agency.

The material below is just for laughs, nothing serious, unless if you want it to be.

Have a great Wednesday!

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Dear Washington D.C. Airport Authority,

We the citizens of San Francisco highly recommends you hire Nathaniel Ford immediately for the lead position for your airport authority. At the SFMTA, he runs an excellent operation, including the famous Muni service. He has been able to keep the budget intact, maintain reliable service, happy employees, and still offer passengers low fares to ride around the city.

Also, he has been able to maintain an excellent safety record for the transit agency. There have been no major incidents for the longest time.

I believe he would be a great candidate to hire as soon as possible as other agencies in the nation wants to hire him as well.

Respectfully,
Happy Citizens of San Francisco

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What the letter really meant:

We the citizens of San Francisco highly recommends you hire Nathaniel Ford immediately for the lead position for your airport authority so he can get out of our hands. At the SFMTA, he runs an horrifying operation, including the infamous Muni service. He has been able to keep the budget in the red for years, maintain unreliable service with no-shows and metro derailments, greedy employees with a union so powerful that he can't control them, and raises the prices of passes.

Also, he has been able to maintain a concerning safety record for the transit agency. There have been major incidents regarding the light rail (metro) system, including major derailments, an operator passing-out and slamming into another rail car, poor track maintenance in the Twin Peaks tunnel resulting in much slower trains, and rumors the Twin Peaks and Sunset Tunnels have not been seismically tested.

I believe he would be a great candidate to hire as soon as possible because us San Franciscans are fed-up with him and wants him out of office. We don't want to fire him because we don't want to pay-off his contract, so by making him voluntarily quit SFMTA and get another job is a better deal.

Frustrated like crazy,
Angry Citizens of San Francisco

Update: Muni's May 8th Service Cuts - Schedules Still Not Posted

As I reported on April 22nd, Muni announced their "10%" service cuts to many of its bus and rail lines, but argued that new time schedules and trip planning programs (Google Maps and 511) was not updated with the new information.

With less than one week left before major service changes are put into effect, the new time schedules and trip planning programming updates are not done.

• Time schedules: Muni refers everyone to 511.org where the time schedules are posted. At this current time, the time schedules have not been revised. To view a time schedule, use your address bar and type in: http://www.sfmta.com/ and after the slash, type in the bus line. For example: http://www.sfmta.com/18 and it will go automatically to 511's website for the 18-46th Avenue's bus schedule.
• Trip planning: For customized trip planning on Muni, people depend on 511.org's trip planning program and Google Map's public transit option. Both work equally well, but they have their issues with the service changes on Muni. 511 will provide you the pre-May 8th schedule even if you designate a future travel date of May 8th or after. For Google Maps, asking the system for a date on or after May 8th will result in an error.
  

This is not good for Muni. People need to prepare with ample time for upcoming service cuts. People do not like waiting or standing at a bus stop longer than necessary, and many depend on a time schedule or accurate information provided by trip planning programs for the fastest way to get from point A to B.

18-46th Avenue Spared from 30 Minute Frequencies (Except Late Night)

This is a bittersweet victory for those who ride the 18-46th Avenue and/or have also advocated to SFMTA to prevent the outrageous 30 minute frequencies (non-peak service hours) originally proposed in February by management to their board.

I wrote back on March 1st on my blog about the 18-46th Avenue by giving an in-depth look at how much the line has already changed (especially with the reroute via Balboa), and how ugly 30 minute frequencies would be to a line that serves various communities and a major higher educational institution. I have argued that by allowing Muni to force 30 minute frequencies on non-peak service hours, why should the line take a 33% cut, while others are getting next to nothing?

In today's bittersweet victory, Muni caved in, however... the 18 line did get get some cuts that are not as bad as originally planned. Let's take a look:

• Current weekday frequencies: Peak service - 15 minutes, mid-day service - 20 minutes, and late night - 20 minutes. Last bus just past midnight.
  
• Revised weekday frequencies: Peak service - 20 minutes, mid-day service - 25 minutes, evening - 25 minutes, and late night (at 11PM) - 30 minutes. Last bus at approximately 11:30PM.
• Current weekend frequencies: All hours - 20 minutes.
• Revised weekend frequencies: All hours - 25 minutes.

Service changes effective May 8, 2010. That's right folks, it's officially May 8th, while others have argued it's May 1st.

I'm still against any service frequency cuts to the 18-46th Avenue due to its importance to connect with major downtown lines, and being the sole service that serves the western edge of the city, the apartments on John Muir Drive and Lake Merced Hills, and the Janet Pomeroy Center. Since the changes to the 88-BART shuttle removing service to the secluded apartments at John Muir Drive, it has been a large impact on those commuters that now depend on their car or the (worsening) frequencies of the 18-46th Avenue bus line.

Be warned: 511 and Google Maps online trip planning program websites are not ready with Muni's frequency changes when you set the date on or after May 8th, 2010. Also, 511's time schedules are not published, so it is unknown of when buses will depart/arrive based on Muni's modified frequencies schedule.

It is my expectation that Muni will publish the new time schedules and have the trip planning programs ready with at least two weeks before changes happen. I will be watching Muni very carefully and publish updates as we approach "fail day."

To view the upcoming weekday and weekend frequency changes, click here.

New Muni Service Cuts in May - Akit Reminds Muni how they Failed Before

I'm a pretty well informed citizen of San Francisco. I read the news from various sources and keep up-to-date on my tweets; it's sad to see that our public transit agency wants to take a step backward in the wrong direction to hurt not just their customers, but send their overall reputation further down the grave that we call the "Central Subway."

I've heard word that there was a last minute long shot appeal to see if an environmental review was necessary to give the "10%" cut in services on Muni, yet I had a gut feeling that it wasn't going to go well; I was right, the board kicked it to the curb with a 7-4 vote.

What makes me even more frustrated is just how soon the "10%" cuts will actually happen. SF Weekly claims it will start May 1st, and the SF Gate's City Insider says May 8th; but regardless of what date it may be, May will be the worst in Muni's history.

How can Muni decide to take drastic cuts with so little notice? Does less than 17 days notice actually give Muni the balls to pull off a massive PR campaign to inform the public of their beloved transit service going to make drastic cuts?

Let me refresh Muni's memory on some blog entries that gained major attention for FAILURE TO PROVIDE AMPLE NOTICE:

1. When Muni announced their so-called 10% cuts at their board meeting, they specifically targeted the 18-46th Avenue in a showboat attempt to say that service will be reduced from 20 minutes to a whopping 30 minutes mid-day, evenings, and weekends. I wrote a very serious in-depth analysis on why it was not fair to discriminate the 18-46th Avenue with 33% cuts while others are getting less than 10%.
2. The most recent cuts happened on December 5, 2009, and I reported on November 24th that Muni has not made an effort to provide new published bus/train schedules in a timely manner and online planning programs were also not ready. This story alone spread like wildfire and it really caught Muni's attention very quickly.
3. On November 26th, two days after I reported the failure of map planning programs, Google Maps was ready.
4. On December 1st, just a few days away from the major changes, 511's online trip planner program was updated with Muni's changes, but there was no time schedules posted.
5. I also gave a brutal punishing to Muni for failure to provide ample notice of an adult pass hike that was scheduled for January 1st. On November 5, 2009, I argued it was not fair to give such late notice of a pass hike because it would affect people who need to update their payroll deduction for their commuter benefits program. Just few days later (November 8th), I caught Muni in the act of updating their website about the pass hike.

This is a serious warning to Muni management, do not make service cuts without giving the public ample notice. One month's notice is barely acceptable, but with only 17 days left until the new month, that's not enough time to publish a new schedule, and not enough time for the techies at Google and 511 to input the new data into their trip planning program.

You've already screwed-up December 5th's cuts, so why should be trust you to get the time schedules and trip planning software updates in a timely manner? This is especially true for me, the 18-46th Avenue passenger whose going to have to get the worst punishment while others who ride major lines may not even notice much of a difference.

Update:
Here's an additional posting showing evidence of Muni's PR failure: The PGA golf tournament at Harding Park where Muni only gave the public one day's notice of major bus re-routes for the 18-46th Avenue and (the former) 88-BART Shuttle. And even then, I did all the research and posted it faster than 511's alerts page.

SFMTA Customer Service Center Service Fees - I Refuse to Pay

I was taking a look at the Muni updates section of the SFMTA website and it states the following:

"Effective April 1, 2010, there is a $3 fee charged at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) Customer Service Center for the following services:

-- paying parking and transit citations.
-- purchasing fare media (except Senior/Disabled Pilot Pass and Lifeline Pass).
-- purchasing Parking Cards.
-- enrolling in Project 20."

Great... another way to steal money from the public. In my opinion, this idea totally sucks.

There are very few places that actually has all the Muni media available in one place, and now they want to nail you with a $3 surcharge? The SFMTA customer service center is one of only a few places in the city that accepts COMMUTER CHECK VOUCHERS.

Let's also remember that if you purchase Muni token tickets with commuter vouchers (for those folks who don't need to use Muni every single day), you are definitely screwed. The SFMTA customer service center is the only place in the city that you can buy it, plus, you now get F***ED in the ass paying a $3 fee too.

It makes me curious... say I'm the manager of a summer camp of 50 kids, so now I'd have to pay an extra $150 in service fees just so I can buy the passes? No grocery store in the city would even be able to sell 50 passes of the same type; only the SFMTA customer service center has the stockpile.

This is your way to make more money? What a joke.

SFMTA CHIEF NATANIEL FORD: RESIGN NOW. GET OUT OF OFFICE.

Muni FAILS Again: Union Says No to Concessions and Citizens Will Get Royal Screwjob

The public's anger about Muni is reaching a boiling point. Just yesterday, word came around from the Chronicle that Muni's two thousand unionized drivers rejected a proposal that would spare the agency the painful cuts and fare hikes that will hurt our city's citizens.

Vote count: 575 said yes to the offer, 857 rejected. Only 1,432 voted out of their 2,000 membership (yeah, that shows real unity when only 71% vote).

If the union voted in support, Muni could save $15 million by having their drivers make some minor sacrifices and changes in their working policies.

Grumble grumble grumble. It's interesting to note that Mayor Newsom, SFMTA Chief Nat Ford, union head Irwin Lum, and the union's executive board worked fought tooth and nail to work on a decent deal; the union membership just kicked management and it's citizens in the nuts.

I'm a unionized employee too, and we understood that taking furlough and pay cut was necessary to keep our jobs and let our university students be able to have open classes. Why can't this go through the brains of the unionized members of Muni's drivers? Muni will die a painful death (they are crying in agony and begging for morphine right now) unless serious changes happen without screwing the customers again.

I just read an interesting tweet of an organized protest and boycott of Muni, take a look: http://marchagainstmuni.org/

Paying $4 (double) for Muni? Less service on M-Ocean View (Muni hates SF State)?

Muni is broke... I everyone in this city knew this fact for the last several years with more fare and pass hikes, and cutbacks in service.

Muni had a nice town hall meeting where the REAL OWNERS OF MUNI vented their anger at the agency. One item on the table is to double the fare (or what KGO says "100%").

There's two important messages Muni is trying to tell us: bend over and get ready for a probe up your ass (the fear tactic to allow the agency to make cutbacks sound better than hikes), or start dishing out more money (yeah, for even crappier service).

If Muni doubled the fares, here's how much you'll get f***ed:

• Adults: $4 a ride and an unknown price for a pass.
  
• Youth, Seniors, and Disabled: $1.50 a ride and $30 for a pass
• Candlestick express and Bay to Breakers express: $20 round-trip
• Cable Car: $10 for a one-way ride

I honestly think it's just a fear tactic. If Muni really followed through with their threat, the agency would see much less ridership than ever before, and that means the possibility of less income for the agency if more than 50% quit riding Muni and/or just commit to fare evasion with their lazy and few fare inspectors.

Fare evasion sounds even more tempting every single time Muni gives a false threat of hikes.

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Did you hear about one of their other dumb ideas? They want to cut back service for the M-Ocean View line. Muni's management is either high or was smoking weed to think of this idea.

I learned the M line is the most heavily used light rail line in the entire city. You may have thought the N-Judah is king... nope! The main reason why the M-Ocean View is so heavily used is because of my Alma mater, SF State. BART is too expensive since it crosses the Daly City border and charges $2.95 for a ride from any stop within SF, so everyone takes the M-Ocean View because it's 95 cents cheaper each way or free for those who can run away from a fare inspector.

I don't understand this idea. The M-Ocean View is mainly utilized by SF State students and you want to reduce service?

Give Muni a piece of your mind, like FIRE NAT FORD: http://tinyurl.com/SCREWmuni

Muni Just Killed the 18-46th Avenue: 30 Minute Waits

I'm watching the SFMTA Board of Directors meeting live at sfgovtv.org and I'm really pissed-off at Muni's planned announcement to change bus frequencies for the 18-46th Avenue.

The SFMTA representative on the microphone specifically mentioned the 18-46th Avenue bus line on their PowerPoint presentation and clearly said that midday service on the 18 will be going to 30 minute frequencies.

WHAT?

The 18-46th Avenue is the only north-south service on the far western edge of San Francisco. It's like Muni just ruined the great reputation of one of the best bus lines in the city. Why do I consider it the best bus line in the city? Before all this re-route bullshit through Balboa, the best and most senior bus drivers had first choices on what bus lines they can drive, and they always chose the 18-46th Avenue. When the drivers say the 18 is the best, the passengers can totally agree.

Midday service has always operated on the 18-46th Avenue runs on 20 minute frequencies, which is totally appropriate for a bus line where the nearest other bus line is over a dozen blocks away at Sunset Blvd (the 29-Sunset).

If Muni moves the frequency to 30 minutes, that means literally destroying the bus line. Assuming a bus goes out of service on the 18, your wait can be up to ONE HOUR. That's like waiting for the Owl bus late at night. Would you like to wait up to an hour with buses that have so much deferred maintenance?

And how about the SF State students, staff, and faculty? How about the Lowell High School students? How about the people who do grocery shopping at the Safeway "at the beach" (LaPlaya and Fulton) and the folks who shop at Stonestown? Will you disenfranchise service to the young, the adults who don't want to pay the $5 parking fee at SF State, and the elderly?

Hey Muni, here's an answer for all of your problems. FIRE NAT FORD. Hell, why not just kick off the Board of Directors.

Next Fiscal Year for Muni: $53 Million in the Hole or could even be $103 Million

Muni is a total failure. Word from the City Insider is that Muni will be $53 million in the hole starting the next fiscal year, and could even become $103 million if they don't take any action right now.

Yeah, I've heard this all before. Scare the crap out of the public that their beloved transit agency (cough! Bullshit! Excuse me, a bad coughing spell) that the agency will go broke, so we can bend over backwards to pay more and get less service than the cuts we got on December 5th, 2009.

Who in their right mind would pay more for less service? That's what's going to happen if Muni gets their way.

$5 F-Market fares are totally absurd, especially just yesterday there was a massive MELTDOWN with the Muni Metro for the N-Judah and J-Church lines when they forced passengers to walk to the Church station or find an alternate way to get to work. Many packed themselves on the F-Market line, the only other service other than the metro serving above ground on Market from Van Ness to Castro. If the $5 fare was in effect during this meltdown, the metro would be even more crowded, or people would illegally board the F-Market to at least get a shot at arriving at work slightly late.

How about denying boarding the express buses with the "M" pass? Another stupid idea by the transit agency.

• The 8X-Bayshore express is heavily used by the folks in Chinatown for the short hop to Market street and if the folks need the premium pass, they will have to ride the always crowded 30 and 45 lines.
• And how about the Richmond district express buses? Would anyone pay an extra $120 a year to Muni just to ride it? My answer is a big fat NO. The 1AX, 1BX, 31AX, 31BX, 38AX, and 38BX helps to relieve the crushing capacity on the other Richmond district lines, especially the 38L that gets packed when it reaches Presidio Avenue and the people trying to save money would ride the local and limited lines to save dough in exchange for arriving to their destination about 10 minutes later than the express.

Cable Cars for a premium pass too? WTF? Are the folks at SFMTA so nearsighted that they think the Cable Cars are always for tourists?

• Locals who work or live near the California Cable Car line depend on that line to go grocery shopping and get to their job. The California line may be a moneymaker for the agency as a tourist attraction, but it's for the LOCALS.

Muni needs to think smarter and not raise prices or put restrictions on our passes.

What does it take for Muni to consider TransLink to be a permanent part of the agency?

• They keep saying "well it's still beta" or "we are still testing it" is a bunch of crap. Get the Cable Cars in motion and you have the system fully ready to go.
• This means no waiting to pay the fare box, no more wasting money printing transfers, less mass production of fast passes, less mechanical breakdown of fare boxes and fare gates, and less time spent counting the change and dollar bills collected.

How about more timed transfer points? It works perfectly for BART when you need to go to Richmond or Pittsburg/Bay Point.

• A perfect example of a timed point is at SF State where the 28-19th Avenue passengers can transfer at SF State (19th/Holloway) and quickly transfer to the 29-Sunset for the ride to City College.
• They used to tell you about the timed transfer on the published time schedules Muni did back in the day, but the time schedules on 511 don't even tell you if the stop is a timed transfer point anymore.

I'm ticked at Muni. You can do a better job without giving the royal screwjob to the public.

Tell the SFMTA Muni board to Shove It on Tuesday

Tomorrow (Tuesday, January 19th) at 2PM in City Hall room 400 will be the SFMTA Board of Directors meeting, and things will not be very happy...

Two very special items will either be discussed or be mentioned during public comment:

1. Muni's budget is allegedly bleeding so badly that more cuts and changes in policies would be necessary; and it could come as soon as May.
2. SFMTA Board will decide if they want to renew SFMTA Chief Nathaniel Ford's contract for another four years. This is brand new news straight from the "City Insider" of the SFgate.

These two items are going to cause some major problems. The public is already angry at Muni for the pass hikes, service cuts, and fare hikes. Also, nobody likes Nathaniel Ford for having such an enormous salary and turning our transit agency into the worst piece of trash in the country.

The SFMTA Board represents the people of the City and County of San Francisco, DO YOUR JOB AND FIRE NAT FORD IMMEDIATELY.

If you are pissed-off at everything about SFMTA/Muni, tell them!

• Go to the meeting tomorrow and note your planned attendance on this Facebook page.
  
• If you can't attend, get contact information here: http://tinyurl.com/SCREWmuni
• Sign an online petition to show your anger.
  

$5 ride on the F-Market and Premium Charge on Express Buses - IS MUNI NUTS?

Our city's public transit agency is a complete insult. With SFMTA/Muni trying to fill-in their massive budget gap of $16.9 million, the problem gets worse and worse every single time the agency opens their mouth.

Streetsblog San Francisco reports that as soon as May, Muni could be doing the following:

1. Fare on the F-Market line would increase to $5.
2. Cable Car service would require use of their "A" pass and the brand new "M" pass would be rejected.
3. Express buses would also only allow the "A" pass and refuse the "M" pass.
4. Discount passes would increase to $30/month.
5. New service fees for SFMTA services online and at their customer service center on Van Ness.
6. An extra $1.50 fee per citation issued by the SFMTA.
7. Neighborhood parking permits would be raised to $96 ($20 hike).
8. Reduction in service on all Muni lines (means less buses and trains on the road).

All these ideas are terrible. Muni should not be screwing with their loyal (and sometimes not loyal) customers. The city should be investing more into our public transportation system.

Muni tried some of these tactics before during the Frank Jordan era, and it FAILED so badly that Muni retracted their premium fare for express buses, gave back bus transfers, and issued a single pass for all adults.

Who in their right mind would ever ride the F-Market if the fee is $5? People could just wait at bus stops, gather four people and get to Fisherman's Wharf in a taxicab in faster time, and the taxi fee per person would be definitely less than $5 a head. What next, charge $5 for the 47-Van Ness and 49-Van Ness Mission because it gets to the tourist spots at the Wharf?

Express buses for a premium fee? I can understand charging a higher price for the Candlestick and Bay to Breakers express buses, but not the peak hour express buses. Those buses help reduce the passenger congestion on the local routes, especially the 1, 38, 38L, and 31 in the Richmond district. If pass prices stay the same and you can only use your premium "A" pass on the peak hour expresses, you would be spending an extra $120 a year just for that feature; for those penny pinchers, that means buying the "M" pass and riding the local bus lines just to save money.

And less frequency on bus lines? Some bus lines only operate every 20 minutes, so adding another 10 minutes would be terrible and ruin the good reputation of some of our best bus lines. Plus, if a bus breaks down, have a nice time waiting up to an hour.

Gavin Newsom promised that our city would be a "transit first city," but more of these bullshit price hikes and transit cuts makes us look more like a "car first city."

The citizens are fed-up with everything about Muni. Muni is the WORST managed agency in the entire city. If the SFMTA Board can't do the job, we the people must start yelling at the top of our lungs and demand change, starting with the IMMEDIATE RESIGNATION OF SFMTA CHIEF NATHANIEL FORD.

The next board meeting is: Tuesday, January 19th at 2PM in City Hall room 400. If you cannot be there, e-mail them. More info at: http://tinyurl.com/SCREWmuni

Muni Metro - Nobody Likes You

This has gone beyond belief to hear about another problem with Muni Metro. Let's get our shotgun and put this out of its misery.

As the news reports have mentioned (SFGate, SF Appeal, and SFist): Last night, the overhead wire somewhere near Van Ness station fell down and caused a huge shutdown of Muni Metro service within the subway portions. This caused a major hardship to passengers now being forced to rely on inadequate shuttle buses packed to the gills and existing bus lines crammed with people for alternatives to get back home.

But what makes this entire problem even worse, the first word of this came from the Twitter users, but there was no official notice of a big problem until HOURS LATER by 511's website and 311's twitter.

Doesn't this agency understand that failing to tell the public will result in angry customers? Who in their right mind would ever ride the metro ever again after this bullshit? It's every single damn day there's something going wrong, and sure as hell, people are riding the buses more often because at least if one breaks down, another one can come by. But wait... Muni cut some bus lines or reduced service.

"Transit first city" my ass.

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It is starting to become a new trend, when Muni doesn't feel like telling the general public that there's a problem or some type of change coming soon.

Remember the fast pass hike? I exposed Muni for not giving the public with ample time and they fessed-up by posting up the new pass changes the next day.

How about the time I exposed Muni for not putting-up the schedules and the interactive maps when the route changes were just a week away? Yeah, caught them again.

Get with the program Muni. The public distrusts you.

Akit's San Francisco Holiday Songs

With the holidays just around the bend, it's time to sing some holiday carols!

Here's one with our Mayor, Gavin Newsom.
Newsom the media walk away-er, didn't like Hank Plante's news.

Then he got all pissy on camera,
yelling out that "this interview blows."

All of the other media, laughed and called him names,
they never let poor Newsom run away from his pains.

Then one foggy San Francisco day,
Hank Plante came to say...

Newsom with your hair so greasy, why not get an interview tonight?

Then all the media loved him,
and he answered his questions with glee.

Newsom the media walk away-er, went down in history (and didn't become Governor!).


Ahh, the 10 days of Muni:

• 10 broken down buses.
• 9 overpaid inspectors.
• 8 fare evasion citations.
• 7 buses smell like asses.
• 6 windows with graffiti.
• 5 clipping nails!
• 4 Sutter is gone.
• 3 accidents.
• 2 stabbings.
• and an agency that is over $100 million in the red.

Always a classic... Jingle Bells!
Jingle bells, Muni smells, Nat Ford cuts our service.
Higher meter rates,
and no parking ticket breaks,
This city is going to hell, hey!

Another Jingle Bells classic!
Dashing through the bags,
on the most crowded bus in town.

Hearing the driver yell,
"get off the stairs or this bus is going to hell!"

Live chicken in the bag,
Ladies clipping their fingers.

Oh what fun it is to ride and smell the stinky bus tonight...
Oh 30-Stockton, 30-Stockton!

On the "Last Ride" for the 18-46th Avenue

It's tough to say goodbye to the 18-46th Avenue's route that serves Geary, Point Lobos, the Cliff House, and a small portion of La Playa.

Today is the last day of service for this segment before it is re-routed to take over the 38-Geary Ocean Beach branch segment from 33rd/Geary to the Ocean Beach terminal. This will make it more challenging for me to catch this bus line that goes directly to my workplace at SF State as I have to walk the notorious steep hills between Balboa and Geary.

Today's "last ride" did not have my usual driver (actually, I haven't seen her in a week), and one of those orange vested SFMTA "ambassadors" was on the bus as well to remind people of the deleted segment starting tomorrow.

Even more interesting is the buses had their automated announcements fixed. The bus announced every single stop, but only the street names. The modified announcements did not mention any major attractions/locations like this one: "Lake Merced and Font; San Francisco State University" or mentioning the SF Zoo.

Even more amusing is listening to the announcements that mentioned that the bus line will be modified and service hours reduced in three different languages, but also noticing that it kept getting cut-off every time because the stop announcements had priority over these reminders.

Read my obit-lette for the 18-46th Avenue and 38-Geary Ocean Beach branch on Muni Diaries.

Muni Meltdown II Coming this Monday

Yes, everyone knows by now that Muni will be do some major changes to their routes starting this Saturday, and everyone knows that the online trip planners are ready for these changes.

But let's get right to the point folks, Monday will be a world of hell, welcome to...

MUNI MELTDOWN II
(or is it meltdown XXVIII?)

Since not everyone rides Muni on Saturdays and Sundays, Monday's commute will be the big stress test for the agency if it will go down in history for being worthy or a huge failure.

But... there's already big failures for the SFMTA with these upcoming changes:

1. Not every bus stop has their yellow colored notice posted about their bus line or segment being cut. In particular, I noticed the 88-BART Shuttle stops on Lake Merced and John Muir Drive without any signage.
2. There's word from SF Streetsblog that Muni will have a huge mid-year deficit in the millions.
3. Muni didn't print enough of those pamphlets about all the route changes. Damn that is a thick pamphlet to carry around.
4. Muni and 511 did not publish a new time schedule for all their buses starting 12/5/09. Instead, we are required to depend on the "trip planner" programs available.
5. Don't forget, Muni is going to force you to cram another $5 to $15 on an adult fast pass in less than a month.

Remember folks, we are paying more for even worse service.

• Don't believe the city government saying these service changes are to improve their efficiency. That's a load of bullshit. Cutting a bus line simply means cramming all those passengers to another bus line that's already full of people.
• Gavin Newsom's dream is to have a "transit first" city; if you re-route or cut service to many lines and just increase frequency on just a few of them, PLUS increase fares and passes, AND massive deferred maintenance, how in the hell are we turning into a "transit first" city after December 5th?

We need to start organizing and fighting back. This is OUR public transit agency that is being destroyed by a bunch of idiots fresh from the insane asylum. Just see how angry I got when I published my 20 demands to fix Muni.

UPDATE: Google Maps Now Includes Muni's Upcoming Service Changes

This is an interesting piece of news, Google Maps updated their "transit planner" for Muni when you tell the system you plan to take a trip on or after 12/5/09.

I noticed this change on the map posted on a recent entry on my blog addressing Muni about why new bus and train schedules are not posted for the public to view.

To give you a particular example, let's say I wanted to do these criteria:

1. Departure date: 12/5/09
2. Departure time: 10AM
3. Starting point: 9th Avenue and Irving (Inner Sunset)
4. End point: 4th and King

Now, if this trip were to happen before 12/5, it is obvious I would take the N-Judah for a direct ride (no transferring) to 4th and King streets. Muni's service changes website states that the N-Judah will not operate to Caltrain on weekends starting on 12/5 and I should transfer to a T-Third train along the subway portion of the N-Judah line.

Let's see what Google Maps created for me:

View Larger Map

Google Maps now tells me to take the N-Judah and transfer to the K-Ingleside/T-Third line at Embarcadero, and it will be a 10 minute transfer period until the next K/T train will arrive.

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If you recall from my recent complaint about the 18-46th Avenue not working on Google maps and telling me to take the 91-Owl at 4AM on 12/7, I have a surprise... the map has been updated! See below.

View Larger Map

Google now instructs me to take the 18-46th Avenue along the modified route (the former Ocean Beach branch of the 38-Geary) at 7:27AM, and I will arrive at SF State University at 7:57AM.

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What does this all mean Akit? These updates to Google Maps means that it now officially works if you need to plan to get around the city after 12/5/09.

511's transit planner IS NOT YET READY and the SFMTA has NOT published time schedules for those who don't want to use a trip planner.

The power of one person can change city politics for the good. I'm proud of my accomplishments, and I thank my fellow Tweeters (like munialerts, munidiaries, and whole_tost) who helped spread the word around to hundreds or even thousands of people around San Francisco.

Hey Muni, Where's the New Route Schedules?

Everyone in the city knows about the major service changes happening on Saturday, December 5th, unless if you don't understand English such as the Chinese Americans in Visitation Valley who didn't learn about it until Marlene Tran started rallying the troops.

(On a side note, Ms. Tran is a really great person to meet. I met with her during my first semester in Graduate School when she was teaching ESL on behalf of City College)

What really scratches my head is that both 511 and Google Maps (for public transit) does not have any information whatsoever about the route terminations and changes.

Here's a particular example: on Google Maps, I want to go from 33rd Avenue and Geary Blvd. to Lake Merced and Font Blvd and arrive at 8:00AM on 12/7/09. Easily, the 18-46th Avenue is the route I will have to take to directly get there (even if the line gets re-routed). Instead, Google Maps suggests I take the 38-Geary and the 91-Owl at 4AM to get to SF State three hours early. Google basically deleted every bus and train route that is being changed and kept the ones that will not be changed.

UPDATE: 11/26: Google maps updated their Muni routes for after 12/5/09 including time schedules. What you see below in this updated Google map shows the revised route for the 18-46th Avenue.

View Larger Map
Full description including what times I have to catch the bus are posted here.

In 511's trip planner program, the route changes and schedule changes have not been fixed. If I were to take the exact trip as I did for Google, it will tell me to take the 18-46th Avenue, but it takes the pre 12/5/09 route that goes around the Cliff House.

The public wants a time schedule NOW. Not everyone takes a major bus line that comes around every 5-10 minutes; I wait up to 20 minutes for the 18-46th Avenue and I have the right to know when my bus is scheduled to arrive so I can minimize waiting in the freezing cold.

If a time schedule does not get released soon, Google Maps and 511 will become USELESS.

Lastly, Muni should get their staff out into the streets putting up notices of line terminations or major changes at bus stops that will be affected NOW. There's a little more than one week left.