Muni, Muni, Muni!

We all know how much our readers (and our staff) lurve to complain about the Muniserable. And it's not just when they're sticking it to the First Amendment. In fact, and every progressive in town will get on our case for this, we'd almost give up our constitutional rights for a fast, clean, reliable public transportation system. Almost. Oh, hell, if they could actually deliver on that promise, we'd probably let the charter be rewritten by Alberto Gonzalez. The Muni feels like torture as it is.

Rescue Muni, our own local Transit Riders Association, asks for your gripes every year as part of its annual rider poll. Not surprisingly, while their data seems to point to a definite increase in the quality of Muni service, actual rider feedback is declining (graphic above -- click for full size).

In 2004, volunteers submitted data for 1234 rides on Muni during the month of April. (1009 were taken by volunteers riding the bus; the remaining were vehicles observed going by a fixed point by volunteers.) Volunteers also recorded direction, destination, time of arrival, crowding, and cleanliness.

Our volunteers found that riders were delayed 12.3% of the time, a significant improvement over last year's score of 13.8% delayed, and continuing to reflect a major improvement over the worst years of 1997-99. Since the "Metro Meltdown" year of 1998, delays have been cut by well over half. As a percentage of advertised headway, waiting time also declined to 62% of posted frequency; this also reflects improved reliability. This year, service improved over 2003 for most modes (except diesel and limited-stop), but the low number of total responses may make this a less reliable figure.

SFist knows enough about statistics to know that a small sampling pool isn't very useful. We also know about angry comments -- you generally get responses from the angry and disaffected. So are the responses down because Muni service is just so damn great these days? Yeah, right. Email transit1@rescuemuni.org if you would like to participate in the poll for 2005. Get in touch now, so that the next time you're thirty minutes late for work thanks to Muni you can report their asses.

Thanks to Tiffany Deneaux for the tip.