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We're a "transit-first" city, and have been for years. That means that cars are a last resort -- rely on the bike, on walking, on the bus if you must, but don't clog up the streets unless you absolutely have to. Too bad nobody told the terminally out-of-touch 511.org; the MTC-run "service," designed to facilitate your movement around the bay area, continues to all about cars, cars, cars. Fuck you, Muni riders!
In their August newsletter (sent out after a third of August has already passed), 511 is pushing four bulletins, all of which are useless unless you use a car:
- There's new FasTrak lanes on nearly every local bridge
- The Bay Bridge is closing from August 31 to September 4
- Please don't drive on Spare the Air Days
- Driving is great when you use our road-trip planner
That road-trip planner's a piece of work, vastly inferior to a billion other trip-planning websites: it only works for a handful of cities, you can't select specific starting and ending points, and it doesn't give you directions -- it only tells your what the posted speed limits are. Remind us again why we're paying millions of dollars for this service?
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"Transit first" as a policy means promoting public transit; it does not mean, as some -- including, apparently, "Mattymatt," seem to think -- punishing those who use individual transporation.
And it seems a little deranged to characterize offering services to assist those for whom individual transportation is more practical than mass transit as being some sort of "F-you" to Muni riders.
For Pete's sakes, chill out, Matty.
- Alex
Um, you do know that 511.org has a transit trip planner, too, right?
http://transit.511.org/tripplanner/index.asp
Alright then -- what should Muni riders be thanking 511 for?
They can't even get bus routes correct.
Worthless!
Does 311 even have a website?
511's transit planner is worthless. They can't cover a specific address, but gives you a broad address in some cases.
Example:
Real address (what you type in to 511): 850 Bryant (Hall of Justice)
511's address: 800-900 Bryant
Why should I click on more crap just to satisfy their system? Heck, Google and Mapquest doesn't do this to you!
Yes; 311 is one of those rare phone numbers that gets its own website: sfgov.org/sf311
Hmm.
To be fair, if you click another button after the first, 511's transit planner will display current speeds, presumably updated based on traffic.
It's still a pathetic effort. Building a site like that is a one-week assignment of average difficulty in an introductory college computer science course. And their implementation is obvious B work.
No, mattymatt does have a point. 511 began as transitinfo, a simple but comprehensive site that was set up by some students. It had a look similar to craigslist (very utilitarian) and it worked, it just worked (although it might be pointed out that its ambitions were not too mighty). Then it got picked up by the public, consulted to death, and remade into a nearly unusable mess at the cost of millions. Forget trip planning; try looking at a route map, or even just a schedule. It's garbage. It's insulting. Transit gets pushed aside enough as it is. To have its very coherence taken away is devastating to the goal of getting people onto it.
Matt, guest #2 here. I have to agree that 511 serves Muni riders poorly, but in that it is no different from the Muni website itself. 511 covers more than just SF, and as SF does not pay a disproportionate amount of 511's budget, I can't muster a whole lot of sympathy for your position.
And for the record, I have found 511's transit planner to be helpful, much more so than Muni's pathetic web site. Or has a peninsula dweller's opinion no weight around here?
The best "planner" for Muni is the $3 paper map sold around town. It fits in your back pocket, impresses the tourists, and doubles as a decent street map so you can walk when Muni fails ya.
The last few times I've tried calling 511 for Muni NextBus times, I was told that the N-Judah no longer exists. The final time I attempted to use the service I got a busy signal. Huh wha? It's ok though; I've long suspected that the 511 robot operator is sexist, since he only understands me when I lower my voice to Gregory Peck bass levels.
311=Nice humans with accurate NextBus times. 511=Sexist robot who doesn't believe in Muni.
We need to have a web site for 311 that allows us to submit things like "pedestrian light needs adjustment (as in, it cannot be easily viewed because it is at a 45 degree angle instead of facing the crosswalk)" or "sewage smelling water leaking down The Embarcadero by Gordon Biersch Brewery Resaturant." I've called 311 a couple of times, and have yet to speak to a human without having to wait awhile.
I used 311 a couple of times last week - got a live person right away, and got muni info (when waiting what seemed like a really long time for a #30!)
And of course there is no regional rail plan meeting in SF. A small thing, but we do have more transit boardings than any other city in the region!
511 is perfect for me when I drive home from work. I use it just about every day.
On the other hand, when I do take public transit, my typically 30-60 minute commute becomes 1-1/2 to 2 hours. I try to do this as often as possible, but I have responsibilies I must attend to after work, which prohibit me from taking mass transit most days. I guess public transit gives me the old Fuck You, too!
I love 511.org for transit directions.
511's transit planner works a heck of a lot better when you choose addresses using the google map feature (shocker!) if you find a better transit planner for the area, feel free to let us all know!
511's NextBus function isn't great, but having a human tell me that NextBus isn't working doesn't actually help me figure out when my bus is coming either...maybe actually getting NextBus to work would be a logical next step
i think 511's got some use as a regional service and no, it's not devoted to MUNI riders, it's a regional service.