As always, our Security Guy responds to last week's questions to give everyone the low down on the security haps. Since there were so many questions last week, we'll give the first half today and the second half tomorrow.

We're cool like that.

I have noticed a lot more inspectors recently, usually on the t or the n, ( I don't ride the buses). They are polite efficent, and 9 times out of ten, I see them catch one offender on each sweep through a carriage. I hate it when I see folks sneaking onto muni, so thanks for catching them (or at least some of them)....

We are doing what we can. We will keep up the work. Thanks for the comments.


20*35=700 shifts per month. That's barely more than 2 citations per shift (unless they are part time). Even if they are all half time, that's 4 per 8 hr shift. Is that all they can manage?

No, they can do more however customer service is our key. This also depends on the inspector out there. We have good efficient workers and the ones who don't want to work (unfortunately).

if fare evasion is 55-73% of all riders why doesn't muni management do something? I don't have a solution but as a small business owner, if 55-73% of my customers were stealing
Because, unlike your business, the marginal cost to Muni of another unpaid rider is basically zero? Fares are a very small portion of Muni's budget. The cost of more inspectors trades off with fare revenue, and the current number is probably close to optimal for Muni.

That's about it, right there folks.

Fare inspectors should be able to transfer between trains a lot more efficiently than they do -- they should be on the trains 90% of the time, not the platforms. Can Muni give them portable NextBus monitors so they can see when the next train is coming the other way?

You would think so (that they transfer between trains more) however due to union issues, we have to abide by the "agreements" made.

We have train and platform assignments to name a few. Trains can be quite crowded so, we try and get to the proof of payment before they pack into a train.

NextBus monitors? that's a good idea. I don't know how management will go for this though.

Any claim of 55+% fare evasion is simply BS. This doesn't even pass the laugh test.
Is this "Muni Security Guy" for real -- because no real fare inspector encounters more than half of all fares inspected to be invalid or nonexistent -- or is somebody pulling SFist's leg here?

What seems to be misquoted and misinterpreted was the SHOCK HORROR"A study conducted in 2004 and 2005 by the Municipal Transportation Agency and released last year found that between 54 and 73 percent of riders at three subway stations didn't pay a fare or show a pass" statement in a 27 Feb 2007 story in the Chronicle

Note that "not showing a pass" is absolutely NOT the same thing as "not having a valid fare". As any Muni fare inspector should know. I certainly feel no need to detour to the the far end of Muni's ill-conceived downtown stations just to wave my perfectly valid transfer under a disinterested station agent's nose. Note that in a competently administered and policed system (Muni is neither) actual fare evasion rates are maintained well under 5%, that being the trade-off between the vastly improved operating efficiency (expect at Muni) and lower capital costs (except at Muni) of POP against a small and controllable level of evasion. Of course, such systems (unlike Muni) actually make it simple and desirable and worth-while and non-frustrating to buy long-period (weekly, daily, monthly, yearly) passes.

(PS The very idea of having expensive fare gates and stupid, useless station agents in booths at all is ridiculous: getting rid of such obsolesence and expense and impediments is why Proof of Payment exists in advanced civilized first world democracies. Naturally, Muni is "designing" its wonderful Central Subway to require fare barriers, at an extra cost of a few hundred mission dollars ... that's somewhere north of $20k/day in sales and income tax dollars subsidy to build useless underground structures to "increase" fare revenue. Unbelievable, but true.

But then it's not as if we expect anybody even remotely connected with Muni or the SF Transportation Authority to be able to perform even the most elementary arithmetic or to care about value for money. Hop on the Central Subway gravy train! Remember: the bigger the public failure and the worse the squandering of public funds, the better the private rewards!)

You're entitled to your views. Apply for the next MTA CEO opening. Make a difference.

Can nothing be done about the people poaching free rides on the buses? (They usually force their way in through the rear doors. The bus drivers do what they can... sometimes.) But, I see fare inspectors all over the train system while up on the streets of San Francisco bus-ride poaching is rampant and not decreasing at all. A little math tells me that there's money to be made/collected/fined and collected there... just a little math.

Agreed. There is a plan to put fare inspectors on the bus lines, but not yet.

I've noticed a spike in not only people coming in the back doors on the bus, but bringing their bike with them! Usually it is a small BMX bike, but it takes up the room of 4 people, if not more. The bus has bike racks, but I guess you'd have to have valid fare to go that route!
I've also seen regular sized bikes being taken onto the second car of the N. Luckily, the cyclists do it during non-rush periods and at least stow it against the opposing door.

Buses? it's not within our pervue at this time. But to answer it, they should not bring a bike into a bus nor a train.