SFist: Up With Muni

Belgand

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 04:39:15 -0800

Very true. Weekends service just slows down to a crawl because apparently Muni only seems to believe that it's used by people who want to take it to work downtown. Of course on weekends people just sit at home all day and never go anywhere. Totally OK to just cut back service when the majority of people are off work and able to ride around going places. Last Saturday I was waiting about 20 minutes for an M at Powell and when it finally arrived it was so packed (a single car of course) that we could just barely cram everyone onto the car. Of course, with TEP they want to screw with the M line even further and stop it at SF State because who gives a shit about anyone who lives further out than that. Just make them ride all the way over the surface through Noe Valley on the J, they won't mind. Only poor people live over there and they clearly don't matter. Also, rather than taking trains and buses out of service at, say, the end of the line, feel free to take them out of service whenever you feel like it. It's totally cool to just shove everyone off the train at West Portal station and tell them to wait for another train instead. Or, you know, wherever really. A random street stop on a bus works just as well. I remember one time being dropped off at SF State by a train going out of service. Thankfully there was another train across the platform that the drivers informed us about. Of course, as soon as we started unloading the other train must have noticed and sped out the station as fast as possible. I swear, as soon as we started filing out and towards the train it just took off. Our original driver, when I mentioned this to him didn't bother to call it in to central or anything, but just shrugged his shoulders like it wasn't his problem and he couldn't be bothered. The extra 20 minutes wait at night in the cold was just fine. As always one of our biggest problems is the lack of a proper subway networking the entire city. It's the only way that any other densely populated city is able to manage and there's a good reason why they all do it. Ours is completely half-assed and on par with LA. Also, do people actually drive in the city? Where in the hell are these people parking?!? No matter how bad Muni currently is it's never going to be as bad as driving is.

hcwms

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:58:23 -0800

Dear Muni, knowing full well that no one with any responsibilty is ever to read this would you consider this plan. 1) designate Civic Center and Daly City bart as the official loading zones for mega events. 2) to avoid all the backdoor boarding and fare evasion get a mobile kiosk for fare collection. 3) consider say...$5 r/t wristbands. 4)make ocean beach the a post event loading zone. 5) try not to forget that folks that remain in the city wouls also like to continue on with life and get places also. Sincerely- Someone who actually would like to see real commmitment to improvement.

zippy_monster

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:07:31 -0800

Xenu: trying to take an M were you? An LRV took out the overhead wiring at Holloway this P.M. What a mess.

Xenu

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:43:05 -0800

As someone who just waited an hour and half for the fucking Metro, I have this to say: You assholes are patting yourself on the back while kicking us in the face at the same time. Up yours, Muni.

weissadam

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:54:35 -0800

obviously the solution is to quadruple muni fare so they can add a ton of excess capacity, only to be pulled out once a year when some event draws a crowd that is greater than 15% of the population of the city itself. also, they should demo half the city so they can widen streets and build some freeways, so next time a massive extraordinary event goes down, it will run perfectly smoothly. or perhaps, they can just not do special events. or perhaps, you can just relax. accept the fact that shit happens once in a while. and be glad that muni sucks, because if it didn't, you probably wouldn't be able to afford to live in the city or use it.

NoeValleyJim

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:24:48 -0800

I rode the J-Church to Chinatown Sunday and it was packed until Duboce, where about half the car got off. I went back and forth on the 1-California to Alta Park and it was great, running about twice as often as your normal Sunday schedule. No real problems whatsover, though the J was crowded for a Sunday morning and a little slow accordingly. No worse than rush hour though.

Jamison

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:57:18 -0800

@travin I was in Duboce Park saturday afternoon and saw plenty of jam packed N-Judah trains. It was the second, third or even fourth closely bunched train that was empty. After the 10-15 minute gap, the cycle repeated.

cowsaysmeow

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:49:58 -0800

@mushmouth: True, but from about 1:30 until I got home a little after 3am, I didn't see any outbound 38s, which I've never seen happen before (and nearly every display I saw going home said 30 or 40 minutes). I did see one going inbound however.

Rachel

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:46:51 -0800

I called 311 and was told the 5 was running slow. I ended up walking 15 blocks and beat the sardine-packed bus to my transfer point. People _not_ attending the concert were screwed out of their ride all afternoon.

mushmouth

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:16:03 -0800

Sucks they mis-printed a bus that had probably just passed, but 2:00 AM is Owl Service, which is a bus every 30 minutes. (and they time the transfers)

mark925

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:13:34 -0800

I've literally had to get off and walk the last four times I've been on the N because something broke. grrrr

cowsaysmeow

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:53:18 -0800

It appears to me that they ignored pretty much anyone who wasn't at that overpriced concert (and even then MUNI didn't work so well from what I've heard) - I had the lovely pleasure of walking all the way from Fillmore and Geary back to the Outer Richmond around 2am because the NextBus display would say 1 minute, then 30 minutes, and when I gave up and started walking, the next one I saw at Divis said 40 minutes. I thought about taking a taxi, but gee willikers, those were all taken! Yay, involuntary exercise, woo hoo! :|

Joel

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:00:13 -0800

Every extra N I saw, every 71, for three days were almost completely empty except during expected fill times, at the end of major sections of the concert which, of course, have a somewhat predictable schedule. Yeah, worked out well for me as a Sunset resident just running errands around town during the day or headed out early Saturday evening, but if I lived somewhere else and was just trying to get to or from the show, I'd have a much different perspective.

Ciaran

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:39:22 -0800

Is Nat Ford still here?

mushmouth

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:35:20 -0800

I didn't know that muni was infinitely scalable I guess it must have a infinitely scalable budget as well.

travin

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:30:01 -0800

boogaloos = fixed capacity muni = scalable capacity

Akit

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:28:29 -0800

Ford should resign, and so should Lum (the union head). The public doesn't want these scumbags running Muni.

mushmouth

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:25:28 -0800

Every saturday morning I have to wait an hour outside of Booger-loos to eat breakfast. You would think they would have gotten their act together by now, its a very "predictable schedule". Sometimes there is something such as maximum capacity, especially when a whole day's (entire system) worth of riders wants to take 3 lines and arrive and leave at about the same time.

OrangeDrink

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:24:06 -0800

no.

whosthatdog

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:17:34 -0800

on kgo this morning they mentioned an n-judah collision with a bicyclist at 27th avenue. haven't been able to find anything online - anyone else?

Greg

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:07:10 -0800

The sheer amount of chutzpah it takes to put out a press release like that shows what happens when you pay too much money to upper management and let the drivers not show up for work whenever they want. Now, can you imagine the same kind of mentality running your electricity? Scary!

jacksevanroo

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:01:36 -0800

I've yet to meet a muni driver that I would want to perfom fellatio on me.

travin

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:01:29 -0800

All of 117,000? That number is what percentage of the possible capacity of all the additional units employed, driver's, traffic control officers and all associated expenses and overtime? I'm betting the number represents only as high as 10% of total capacity and their efforts were seriously inefficient and drastically in the red. Every extra N I saw, every 71, for three days were almost completely empty except during expected fill times, at the end of major sections of the concert which, of course, have a somewhat predictable schedule. SFMTA: I want to see real numbers, bitches. Not some feel good number you expect nobody to question because it sounds so incredibly impressive.

Generic

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:59:16 -0800

Fire. Them. All.