SF Muni to Raise Fast Pass to $55

Are you ready to pay more for San Francisco Muni?

A report by the Chronicle talking about fare inspectors shows that Muni may raise the price of an Adult "Fast Pass" from $45/month to $55/month. The new hike will be effective on July 1st, 2009.

Let's do a little bit of math on what the fare hike will do to your pocket:

Assuming the regular fare will remain at $1.50 per person...

• The current pass price is $45, one must use the bus pass at least 30 times or 15 round-trips to get its full value.
• The new pass price is $55, one must use the bus pass at least 37 times or 18 1/2 round-trips to get its full value.

For the average commuter... lets assume there are 20 working days per month and they ride Muni for every single workday. In a month, a person will ride 40 times or 20 round trips. (Also assume they do not use it for Cable Cars, special service, CultureBus, and service on weekends).

• Using the current pass price, the commuter can miss five days worth of rides (due to illness, holidays, driving directly to work, carpool, etc.) and still get the value of the pass.
• Under the new pass price, the passenger can only miss TWO days of commuting (or three trips due to the fraction in calculations) to lose the value of the fast pass. So if you are scheduling a day off to the dentist, a friend giving you a lift to/from work, or you are just sick, you might be wasting money on your public transit.
  

Missing two days of commuting is $6 a month, so multiply that by twelve and you lose $72.

So Muni, if our citizens do the math on their commute and realize that raising the pass price will actually force commuters to lose money, won't that make the buses even slower? Passengers will have to pay in cash or token tickets to save money.

If Muni wants to make A GOOD INCENTIVE... offer Translink cards that includes a discount on a monthly pass. Translink fast passes would cost $45 or no more than $50. But since BART is not ready and god knows when Cable Cars will be ready, keep the price low in exchange for killing off BART and Cable Cars (for now). Muni pays thouands of dollars to produce passes and transfers, so Muni can save money and give a deal to passengers by reducing printing costs by getting people on Translink.

Lastly, did anyone notice on the back of the January 2009 Fast Pass that it does not mention about the 3-day grace period after the end of the month? That's odd, the SFMTA website says the 3-day grace period is still valid. So if you ride Muni Metro, click on that link and print out that page, some moron fare inspector might claim "well, the back of your pass says nothing about a grace period." Then show the person that printout with the date stamp, and say "I hope you brought your reading glasses!"

(Photo from SFGov website, public domain since it is a government website)

The San Francisco Manners Quiz

I'm going to rip-off an etiquette quiz on SFGate by publishing my own set of questions, have fun!

Question 1: You notice a Muni passenger picking his nose on the bus (and I mean, the guy doesn't use the other hand to cover it). Do you:

1. Let him keep picking for fools gold.
2. Make an insulting joke at him saying: "Pick harder! You'll reach your brain soon."
3. Give the idiot a tissue.
4. Record it on your cell phone camera and post it on YouTube.
   
5. Slap him with the morning newspaper.
   

Question 2: Aboard the quiet express bus, a phone rings and a lady answers it. She starts having a conversation for ten minutes, and nobody tells her to shut-up.

1. Let her chat away and listen in: "My butt itches bad, and this cream is not working!"
2. Tell her to shut up.
3. Get on your phone and have a 'counter' conversation, telling her of how much of a bad passenger she is.
   
4. Slap her with your morning newspaper.

Question 3: You see Mayor Gavin Newsom scratching his butt in public. What do you do?

1. Ignore it.
2. Offer him some Preparation H.
3. Snap a photo and post it online.
4. Yell out what he's doing. "Hey everybody! The Mayor is scratching his butt!"
5. Slap his scratching hand with your morning newspaper.

Question 4: You are driving down the street and a moron starts crossing the street when it's the red light for him. Do you:

1. Honk your horn.
2. Mow him down.
3. Yell out how much of an idiot he is.
4. Conduct a "drive by" slap of the morning paper.

Question 5: The front end of the Muni bus is packed, but the back part is empty. What do you do?

1. Wait for the next bus, surely it won't be that bad.
2. Be like those pushy folks in Chinatown getting aboard the 30 Stockton.
3. Yell out: "Fare inspectors!"
4. Tell them: "In Japan, they have these Japanese dudes shoving you in the train. Now, why can't we be like that?"
5. Just start slapping people with the morning paper to move aside.
   

Question 6: You just entered your car at the parking lot. Another car wants your space. What now?

1. Hurry up, get the engine running and let him/her take the space.
2. Screw around with the other driver for five minutes by just sitting in your car. Hell, I'll just activate the brake lights once in a while.
3. Read the morning paper, then go up to the other driver, offer him/her the paper, then slap the driver.
   

Question 7: You see ashamed ex-supervisor Ed Jew walking down the street. Do you:

1. Just ignore him.
2. Point your finger and laugh.
3. Offer him a gift certificate to an erotic toy store, since prison will be "lonely" time with his fleshlight? (Or getting it in the butt).
4. Slap him with your morning paper (preferably one with his picture on it).

Question 8: KRON 4 is having a live call-in show with financial consultant Rob Black. You and the entire city hates KRON channel 4. What do you do?

1. Watch the show.
2. Turn off-the TV.
3. Make a prank phone call, get through the screener with a B.S. question, and insult the station and the guy live on TV.
4. Visit the KRON studios and slap him with your morning newspaper on live TV.

Question 9: You ride Muni metro and the train breaks down in the tunnel, just short of the next station.

1. Wait patiently while Muni find a solution to evacuate the train.
2. Sing an insulting song about Muni's problems.
3. Pull the emergency door lever and walk 50 feet to the next station.
4. Wait until the Muni supervisor tells everyone to hold on for another hour, walk up to him/her and slap him with your morning paper because now you are late to work and there's no cell phone reception to call your pissed-off boss.

Answer key:

• If you picked the slap with the "morning newspaper," maybe it's time to switch to a different type of coffee.
• If you ever recorded a person doing something bad and posted online, you've got some guts.
• Lastly, if you do nothing, um... can I buy you a punching bag for you to unleash your rage? You can't can it forever!

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums - Hilarious Screen Capture

This came from KPIX/CBS 5's "Eye on Blogs" where editor Brittney Gilbert made a posting showing a YouTube video of Mayor Ron Dellums talking to citizens about the riot in Oakland due to the police involved shooting and death of a passenger at the Fruitvale BART platform.

Whoever made this YouTube video chose the perfect screenshot of Dellums. Doesn't he look kinda high or drunk? Makes me want to use this on some of my username photos.

I don't usually blog about other Bay Area cities, but this is one exception since Dellums looks totally funny. And if you don't know who Ron Dellums is, join the club. It seems many people don't like the guy, and people on the SFgate comment boards likes to make fun of him.

SF Muni's Fare Inspectors - A Waste of Tax Dollars?

A report from the SF Chronicle today reports that San Francisco Muni is allegedly catching "50 percent" more fare evaders than the last fiscal year.

So let us do some math straight from the stats of the SFMTA:

• There are 50 fare inspectors hired.
• The fiscal year reports: $492,232 of fines and late fees collected for the violations.

Divide the two numbers and you get $9,844.64, meaning this amount is collected in fines for every single fare inspector in a year. Of course, this does not count for people who appeal and get dismissed, and the ones who just refuse to pay the fine.

But think about it. Fare inspectors make at least $30,000 a year (although I think that they make more than this), and include benefits running about 70 cents per dollar. The SFMTA literally pays with tax money: $51,000 a year per fare inspector and the each one only writes out $9,800 in fines? This is what our tax dollars pay for?

Really, our city could do better if they get their accountants to do the math. Muni should compare their costs of the Muni Metro of the "old days" of when all passengers entered in the front and required NO inspectors (it was not necessary), and the new policy of boarding any door with the cost of 50 inspectors.

If Muni decides to revert to front door boarding, the changes needs to happen: One train operator per car, or at least one non-certified train operator managing the second train car. For the new POP platforms on the T-Third line, Stonestown, and SF State, hire a few to manage those platforms or regions, instead of enforcing the entire network.

Update: BART Erases "Hall of Shame" Gallery

As previously reported on Akit's Complaint Department, I mentioned that BART created their own sanctioned Facebook page, featuring the "Rude Rider Hall of Shame."

There was only a couple of pictures on there of "bad" passengers, but it looks like BART has decided to back-off and placed this statement on their Facebook gallery today:

"Looking for rude riders? We've heard that not everyone is comfortable with that kind of photo sharing. We respect that, so we're leaving it to Flickr and TwitPic. Thanks to everyone who submitted photos here and, yes, we agree: it's not ok to bring aboard a full-sized mattress or leave a spilled bag of Cheetos on the seat. If you have any other ideas for photo sharing sections please let us know!"

It looks like pressure from the local bloggers (including myself) and the folks at SFist have spoken their opinions about BART doing their own sanctioned "hall of shame." Will BART spokesperson Linton Johnson try to cover-up/sugarcoat this screw-up? Who knows?

Is the Muni CultureBus really necessary?

Many local bloggers and a KPIX are noting that the San Francisco "CultureBus" (a.k.a. 74X) is the laughing joke of Muni.

KPIX reports that only 200 passengers a day are riding the bus, thereby the average number is about five per vehicle per route. Plus, it costs over a million dollars a year to run the route.

So with such poor ridership, why should we San Franciscians foot the bill for such a useless Muni line? Surely, the idea of an express bus that can zoom you from Golden Gate Park to Civic Center and Union Square is a nice idea, but the tourists don't know about it, and the locals hate it.

Before the CultureBus started, operators of the local tour agencies of San Francisco (such as Gray Line) argued in front of the SFMTA board that the program undercuts the tourism industry because the CultureBus is a taxpayer subsidized program that's literally a tour bus/shuttle service to all the major museums. Many tour agencies in S.F. offer shuttle services to MULTIPLE locations around San Francisco and have buses that are at least half-full, even on the "value" tourist season here in our beloved city.

Here's why I believe the CultureBus program should be cut:

• The fare is $7, the same fare offered on express buses to Candlestick Park for 49ers games. But the transfer provides unlimited rides on the CultureBus and other Muni lines, excluding the Cable Car. Many locals call the $7 fare a serious rip-off for CultureBus, but $7 for the Candlestick express is a good deal and travels a LONG distance. The CultureBus travels less than five miles.
  
• The fare for Fast Pass and Passport Holders is an additional $3. What kind of crap is that? Fast Passes are allowed on Cable Cars, so what the hell is wrong with the CultureBus?
  
• The service does not cover the Legion of Honor and the Zoo. This means, you will suffer a long and horrible ride on the ever packed 38-Limited, the loud L-Taraval, and the stop-and-go 18-46th Avenue.
• Muni is suffering through a budget shortfall, that CultureBus money could be used to add buses to operate on the heavily used 38-Limited line.
  

Muni could save the program and make it profitable if they do the following changes:

• Promote the program.
• Reduce the fare to the regular $1.50 price. Or offer it at a lower charge (such as $3) to keep the commuters off the bus, and focus it on locals and tourists who wants to visit the museums via an express bus.
• Accept the Fast Pass, Muni Passport, and the tourist's CityPass with NO surcharge.
• Accept the BART to Muni transfer for a 25 cent discount.
  
• Work with the major museums to create a discounted "superpass" that offers unlimited admission for a set number of days, and includes free transit service on all vehicles, including CultureBus. (The "New York Pass" program is an excellent example, if you hate a museum, at least you didn't waste $30, and can just visit another one, all on a timed card, but there's no free transit option on there).
• Extend out into the other major attractions including the Zoo and the Legion of Honor. Heck, they could run a second route starting from the Academy of Sciences/De Young, and drive off to Legion, and continue on Great Highway to the Zoo. I think the locals would love this route because they don't have to suffer the slow ride on the 38-Limited, and the stop-and-go ride on the 18-46th Avenue route. Just a buck fifty extra? I'd pay that.

(Photo is from CultureBus website, since Muni is a public government agency, it is public domain).

So BART Starts a Hall of Shame Photo Gallery

Word from SFist and the SF Weekly is that our beloved BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) agency has started a Facebook page and features a passenger "hall of shame" gallery.

Unfortunately, BART doesn't like bad publicity. In an attempt to post some of my "hall of shame" photos on the Facebook page, it is not possible for people who register as a "fan" to upload photos, thereby it is up to BART's discretion of what goes up and not.

I have a couple of great BART hall of shame photos, showing a Daly City Station Agent hogging TWO parking spaces on MULTIPLE occasions. See the two photos here. But I guess that since BART controls what photos goes up on their own "hall of shame," I guess BART and their little happy union won't like it if my agent "abuse of powers - hall of shame" photos gets posted there.

Unfortunately, BART is not the first to start their own "hall of shame" gallery regarding their transit agency, "BARTrage" started theirs much longer ago then the transit agency.

I even started my own hall of shame dedicated to "aggressive drivers," "idiot parking," and "parking hogs" where I snapped photos from my journeys around San Francisco (including this one I love a lot). I even started my own worldwide group called "Parking Space Hogs" with over 190 pictures from around the world.

At this point, I really have to question BART's own intention of making their own sanctioned "hall of shame gallery." Sure, in one way, it's legal ("Johns" who get arrested for soliciting for prostitution gets plastered on a billboard), but from a moral standpoint and as a quasi-government agency, I think it's also inappropriate. Leave it up to the amateurs like BARTrage, SFist, SF Weekly, and myself to nail those morons.