Sarah Palin Quits
Beware of Blind, Gargantuan Cyclists Roaming City Streets
Photo du Jour 448
Happy 4th of July!
SFist Drinks: The Rio Grande Cocktail at 15 Romolo
We all had a great time piling on Muni last weekend, foaming and ranting about service to and from the park. But what was going on behind the scenes? We asked Muni how they strategized their service around Outside Lands. Here's what they had to say:
"Over the weekend, the total number of extra buses was 118 -- that was divided between the 5 and 71 as needed. They even used extra buses on the N line Friday night," wrote spokeswoman Kristen Holland via email. "these vehicles functioned as Limited service. They followed established routes but made limited stops along the way."
We're not sure why Muni used established routes -- for Limited service, arteries like Oak might've been faster than Haight. And why didn't the extra buses show up on NextBus? According to a well-placed transit source with whom we emailed, adding these "special" buses to the NextBus system would have been a lot of work, and probably not worth it since most concert-goers wouldn't ever see them.
When the concert ended, Muni folks were out on the streets doing "real-time management," relaying information to dispatchers who then sent the buses to the areas that needed them most. But how did concert-goers find their way to transit? According to Kristen, "The locations on the street were designated by portable lighting in the park. SFMTA on-street staff worked together to assist Muni customers onto the buses and trains."
Of course, that's a small comfort when it takes 45 minutes to board -- and another 45 to get downtown. And many concert-goers reported to us that they couldn't find any Muni maps or shuttle info; so they had no idea where to pick up buses. In an area that big, with a crowd of tens of thousands, it would be easy to miss a handful of portable lights and some MTA staffers.
"The members of our Bicycle Program staff were not involved in the event in an official capacity," Kristen added, which is a shame because it's the only aspect of the transportation that got high marks from our commenters. The Bike Coalition did a bang-up job of getting people in and out. So, take note: next time there's a big event, bring your bike. And hopefully next time, the MTA will be able to lend a little support.
So what are your thoughts, now that we know how Muni did their best to cope with a gigantic crowd?
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Unheard of, a positive comment about cycling from mattymatt?!?!
Not to worry, you can now go back to bitching about cyclists as tonight is Critical Mass.
Here are some of the bike-positive posts that I've written.
http://sfist.com/2007/05/25/zombies_bikes_f.php
http://sfist.com/2007/05/07/youve_tangled_with_the_wrong_bike_rodeo_this_time.php
http://sfist.com/2006/12/05/and_now_for_some_bikes.php
http://sfist.com/2007/06/04/and_theyre_off_1.php
Even this little bitty window on the inner-workings leaves me with the same impression that I previously expressed: their efforts were terribly inefficient, ill-informed, poorly communicated and largely a waste of time, energy and expense.
I would still like to see real numbers: ridership in ratio to actual capacity and gross expenditures.
Does this mean we can just get rid of MUNI's "Bicycle Program" and just hire SFBC for everything like this? I mean, what are they there for, meeting once a month for lunch at Kokkari?
er, "...MTA's Bicycle Program"
Probably the biggest f*ckup was that the festival, in all of their PRE-festival directions, told us all to take the N to the show on Friday. I should have known that Muni couldn't possibly have enough trains to handle the crowd. But it sounded so convenient!
I believe that *at least* 100k people showed up or tied to get in on Friday, overwhelming everything including toilets, Muni, beer, IDs, food, escape routes etc.
Also, Mattymatt, you rock.
Hmm. I wasn't there, but really, the 45 minute wait time to get on the bus seems like enough to WALK all the way to downtown. I've often found myself walking along a muni route as I hate to wait. Sometimes you get where you're going before the bus does.
And another thing: who is paying for all that Muni overtime and use of the buses? I hope it's the organizers of this apparently for-profit entertainment event. The tickets were very expensive, and all the acts were the type that appeal to your college educated white folks. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I don't want to pay for it).
@ sbaker: And if you don't beat the bus or street car by walking, you usually only lose a few minutes.
As usual, there were also some badly behaved cyclists at Outside Lands. Perhaps the Bicycle Coalition could do some rider education for Outside Lands next year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv3ZLj2qvWw