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In one of those "no duh" type stories that always gets some play, a study was just released saying that MUNI is slow. Really slow. Like eight miles per hour slow, slowest out of all the major cities. And with the releasing of the news comes the attendant gnashing of teeth and rumblings of consternation as spokesmen for people who matter say that that's not very good. After all, the slower the busses go, the less people riders they get, and the less riders they get the less cash money. Listed as causes of MUNI slowness in the study are everything from traffic, double parking, too many stops, and clunky ways of collecting money. Not mentioned but should be are dumb-ass riders who don't realize it's their stop until the bus is just about to pull away.
So what are we to do about it?
Well, there's creating more bus-only lines but that'll piss off businesses who are concerned about the loss of potential car-driving customers. See the fracas about creating a bus only lane down Geary. Then there's eliminating some stops but that'll bring out the protestors and cries of racism. As for speeding up the collection of fares that would mean either hiring more people or buying new machines. That would cost money, money we don't really have.
In other words, good luck with all that.
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Yep, I always figure an hour to cross town on MUNI, even with no transfers, so 8 mph seems about right.
I wish I didn't feel so confident that nothing will get better.
Make MUNI free.
No more fussing with fare collection. No more staff worrying about how much money is coming in and whether someone's giving free rides to their friends or taking spare change out of the fare boxes.
No more money spent managing the logistics of transit passes. No more hassles over people sneaking on board without paying or selling their transfers for a quarter to make a little spare change.
No more delays while people fumble for their quarters. Load the bus through both front and rear doors.
And a big plus would be that people riding for free would be far more willing to put up with 8MPH than people who are shelling out cold cash for the ride.
And even bigger plus would be that maybe, just maybe, without the hassles of fare collection, the buses might move faster than 8 MPH.
MUNI costs about $680m/yr to run if I remember rightly. Currently fares and passes bring in $125m. How much of the MUNI budget expense would be saved if the fare structure was completely eliminated? Say it's $25m to run the accounting end of MUNI, bring in the cash, print up those cute little transfers that change every day, police the system. That leaves you with a $100m gap in the MUNI budget.
The city budget is something like $7.4b. I say find another $100m somewhere and just make MUNI free. The change would benefit those who ride and would benefit those who don't, by making the streets less congested.
What's it worth to have a public transportation system that would actually get people out of their cars and provide transit for everyone?
Imagine there are no fare boxes. It's easy if you try.