February 26, 2008
Breaking Muni News is Mostly a Bunch of Blah Blah Blah
There was a press conference today at 11am with the Mayor and the head of Muni -- no major revelations, but here's the condensed Cliff's Notes version from our guy at the event:
Gavin: Nat is as frustrated as everybody else. We want change on the margins. Eliminating bus stops. The line I take down polk never has more than 10 people; It takes 10 minutes. We will eliminate bus stops.Nat: This journey is complex, out of the box. Transformation process. Ontime performance, environmental issues.
Judy Kirshbaum: As program manager of Transit Effectiveness Project, I'll be doing more community outreach. Six more workshops coming up with public.
Our take on all this: it sounds like a good start. Eliminating stops is a great idea; eliminating entire lines would be even better. Muni's always tried to accomplish more than it's able to; and so just like anyone whose to-do list is unmanageable (or like Apple before the return of Steve), Muni needs to delegate some of its bloat to someone else, eliminate the bullshit, and focus on its core competency of moving people from one place to another.
But here's what we'd really like someone to cut: lengthy, meaningless, buzzwordy speeches by officials that are just grandiose daydreams instead of specific promises. Just do the damn study, give us the damn findings, and then make the damn changes.
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Mr. Mayor - in terms of eliminating lines, I'm confused, are you calling for the elimination of the 19 Polk you ride down to City Hall so you can ditch your 10 minute/few customers ride and join the rest of the huddled masses on either the 47 or 49 running down Van Ness from Russian Hill???
Gav rides the 19 Polk? I'd have to see it to believe it.
Hmm, I don't think Gavin takes the 19 Polk very often. It might not be very full north of California, but it is frequently SRO south of Geary. On a very good day it takes 20 minutes to get to the civic center from upper Polk. Of course all it takes is one homeless person in a wheelchair to throw that out the window.
Somehow I am not surprised that the Mayor's bus is half empty from Pacific Heights to City Hall, Stalin's bus ride to the Kremlin was probably pleasant too.
While my morning commute from the Upper Haight to Powell Street on any of the 6, 7, or 71 numbered cattle cars is always SRO. Sheesh - My friends who BART in from Berkeley have shorter travel times.
SF Muni... "we guarantee to run late, do no-shows, and don't fire staff with the worst complaint records... otherwise your ride is still $1.50 (it ain't free)."
I'm still disappointed that BART never ran a line to go straight down Geary and one down 19th avenue. May be we won't have to ride in sardine packed buses.
Maybe if the mayor would stop raiding MUNI's money for political shenanigans, and maybe if he'd stop pushing a billion dollar boondoggle like the Central Subway, perhaps then I'd be impressed.
People still ride busses?
So, who is the Steve Jobs that can return to MUNI? From Nat's comment above (and those of the small bald man on Noyes last night, if those are different people), the MUNI leadership is out of their depth.
Eliminating routes and stops is, as Gav aptly put it, "change on the margins." That is, don't rock the boat, don't fix the core incompetencies. By all means, don't mess with the driver's union.
There are people who can only survive as a member of a bureaucracy, and we see a few of them making an appearance above. As Homer said, "the glue that holds together the gears of society." The Peter Principle in action.
I'm figuring it's the 19 because there aren't too many buses which run North-South from his neighborhood (which I thought was Russian Hill).
27 Bryant doesn't run near City Hall. It's pretty much gotta be either the 19 or one of the Van Ness lines and they (the 47 or 49 are never empty). Have I ever seen him on the 19? No. As someone else points out, it's not a bad line but it does have its share of interesting folks given the 'hoods through which it travels.
The problem isn't the number routes and it's not the number of stops. It isn't like MUNI has added stops over the past 20 years and that's why the system is slow. The reasons are, and I'll keep saying it until my fingers hurt, 1) Not enough functioning rolling stock 2) Not enough drivers 3) too many private autos in the way.
If the TEP says a route needs to be adjusted, I'd buy that, but I highly doubt their answer is going to be "remove 65% of the stops." We live in a dense city, each stop is going to pick up / drop off a bunch of people.
And no, the problem isn't the Union, it isn't the 'high' pay -- all the Union problem people cite are corner cases.
Why don't people do their homework before blabbing?
Have you read the proposals? These are the most extensive service changes proposed for Muni since the 1970s. Particularly with all the increases in rapid service proposed (since the #1 rider complaint after reliability is speed), I wouldn't call this blah blah blah at all. Unlike (for example) recent Central Subway stuff:
http://www.sftep.com/docs.html#
Particularly interesting is the changes by line page.
Oh, there you go -- THAT'S interesting. The press conference, on the other hand, was not.
pdx6: The union isn't the entire problem, but they aren't helping.
We cannot possibly compare BART to the MUNI bus line when it comes to speed....
BART has the advantages of
1) Limited stops
2) No traffic except other BART trains
3) Payment occurs before folks step onto the wagon
4) NO big to-do in order to load and unload wheelchairs and other contraptions to help folks get around more easily
5) No distractions from tourists or others asking if the BART train takes them to (you pick the destination tourists enjoy)
That said, I support eliminating non-commercial traffic along the busier downtown routes, setting up BRT lanes, and adding capacity to the busier routes (38, 30, etc.)
Muni should be $1 for 2 hours instead of $1.50 for 3 hours. Why demand quarters? Stupid. And some even amount (like $3) for the whole day. That'll speed up payment, and probably increase revenue since paying the fare would be less of a pain in the ass.
The problem with the traffic is probably less that other cars are on the road than the fact that the streets are idiotic. Terrible signs, unexpected one ways, 3 miles of no left turns, unintelligent lights... means that many of the cars on the road are circling blocks, driving slow, getting pissed, being confused. The bloat is in all the traffic rules that are poorly designed and poorly indicated. Same goes for parking.
Ellis at Market is the best .. sarcasm. No one unfamiliar with that merge across Market to 4th Street trust that they have the right to move along .... cab drivers avoid that intersection like the plague if they can. anyway... back to public transit
That map certainly was interesting. I see a lot of neighborhood groups screaming bloody murder in the near future.
Step 1 Gav: stop siphoning money from MUNI
http://www.examiner.com/a-1179431~Newsom_siphons_Muni_money_for_staff.html
Nothing but good changes proposed for the Sunset. If this gets implemented, it will be fantastic for my neighborhood.