The Return of Ask a Muni Driver
Yes, folks, we here at SFist are proud to announce that "Ask a Muni Driver" has returned and will run every Monday for as long as we have our new Muni Driver around to answer all your Muni related questions. And, hell, maybe even a few others-- he could be great at all of your relationship questions too. So let's start in with today's question, about our new drivers' thoughts on what's good and what's bad about Muni.
And, as always, if you have a question you'd like to ask, e-mail us at editor at SFist.com
{Disclaimer: I am not an official spokesperson for anything except my opinion as a MUNI driver, San Franciscan, and daily passenger just like the rest of you sorry sods relying on MUNI to get us to work on time. If you figure out who I am, please, please don’t tell my bosses ‘cause I want that pension some happy day – assuming there’s any money left in the fund for the lowly drivers by that time.}
While there are many problems with MUNI, I think the #1 problem is the unrealistic schedules. People complain about buses not coming on time, or coming bunched together, but there’s no way for buses to come on time because of the schedules, and the schedules cause the bunching. For example, anybody riding the 48 Quintara should know that the MUNI schedule gives 6 minutes for the bus to go from 24th & Mission to 24th & Castro (during the busiest time of day – otherwise it’s only 5 minutes).
Due to passengers getting onto the bus from BART, and the general busy-ness of the intersection, it often takes 3 minutes or more just to get out of the bus zone at 24th & Mission.
I’ve had it take as long as 15 minutes to do what the schedule specifies should take at maximum 6 minutes. This is without considering routine possibilities such as double-parked cars, wheelchair-bound passengers (average time to load: 3 minutes), or even just general jostling and overcrowding.
It’s also a major safety issue when drivers feel the pressure of trying to stay on schedule in order to get their tiny bathroom break (assuming there’s a usable bathroom at the end of the line – not at all guaranteed!) IF they can reach the designated stop in time.
This means there is a tendency to speed up, skip stops, or even use the bus as a wedge to get in front of other traffic – all of which carry fairly dire potential consequences. At the same time, MUNI’s official policy is that drivers should always focus on safety in preference to speed. In fact, for those members of the public still in the dark about this, MUNI drivers can be penalized for “running hot” – i.e., being AHEAD of schedule, but cannot be penalized for running BEHIND schedule. This is a classic Catch-22 – if the driver wants to pee, stand up for 2 minutes, whatever, she or he is highly motivated to try to keep to the completely unrealistic (and too often unsafe) schedule. On the other hand, MUNI can claim with truth that there is no penalty for going slow….you figure it out. The schedules are so ridiculous and self-contradictory that there are routes (such as the 36-Teracita) where the posted speed limit is 25 mph, but the schedule cannot be met at that speed. Drivers have to break the law to stay on schedule. Given that both drivers and riders are set up with such absurd expectations, is it any surprise that we so often fail to keep the published schedule? Frankly, with the current schedules I am skeptical that MUNI is actually meeting the 70% on-time average that they claim. There is no chance of improving the average without a major overhaul of the entire schedule. The only way MUNI can address the 80% on-time goal with any hope of meeting it would be to revise the schedules and add buses to the busiest lines.
A question for the public on this topic: Would riders rather hear the truth or a convenient lie? Truth: the bus will come every 20 minutes; that’s when it will show up. Or the lie…the buses will come every 10 minutes and passengers can spend the ‘additional’ 10 minutes cussing MUNI for being late?
What’s right with MUNI? Thinking….thinking….thinking….we have a NICE LOGO!