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A spot.us (a reader-supported news-ish site) pitch person wonders why most express buses stop by 8:30 a.m. (inbound) and 6:15 p.m. (outbound). Also, since most express lines are jam-packed with riders, why won't Muni add a few more of these convenient buses? "Overcrowded buses would seem to indicate that there's more demand than Muni can fill with its existing express service," spot.us goes on to point out. We know we'd love more express buses. The few of them we manage to catch get us to where we're going in record time.
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Muni runs express buses on the 38AX and BX every 10 minutes. Honestly, I think the schedule they run is very fair for commuters.
I'd be more happy if they ran expresses all day to the areas that are too far off, like the 38AX serves between 25th and Geary, to 48th Ave. and Pt. Lobos. It takes upwards of 50 minutes on the limited to get to Transbay.
Excellent points. The 16ax/bx, for example, starts running at about 4 pm and the last one departs at around 6 pm. If the idea is to run express buses when most people ride MUNI, I think it would be much better to shift this to 5-7pm, a closer approximation of the actual rush hour(s). The buses before 5 pm are empty, and the last 2 or 3 buses are too crowded.
I take the 14X. Awesome line, but I wish it ran more than 2 hours in the morning and afternoon. Needs an extra half hour on every end. Lines are always crowded, which is harrowing (when standing) when going 60 on 280.
I agree with Snaggs2. I ride the 31/38BX every day, and the early buses are lightly filled, while late buses are packed (both AM and PM runs). Shifting the runs forward by one hour would be a good idea.
Although I generally like the express service, I have to put in a complaint for the Presidio & Geary crowd - we're stuck with the 31/38BXs (the AXs don't stop there) so often the wait between later running buses in the AM can be much longer than 10 minutes. Due to the increase in waiting riders this creates, it makes it more likely that packed buses will roll past the stop (2 full buses passed by my stop this morning).
Clearly Nathaniel Ford has considered this, and as a much smarter person than us (At $350K/yr) decided this just won't do.
I've always been baffled by the whole system. What's the difference between an Express and a Limited? And the A-B thing is weird -- why not just give it a whole new route number if it's so different? And how do you pronounce it? I've always called it "the thirty-eight axe-bix."
I wish there was someone at Muni whose job it was to explain all that stuff. Some sort of office of Relations to the Public, or Service to Customers, if you will.
Missiondweller has it, this is just another Nat Ford genius program. Don't question it, plebe.
This is all well and good but given the fact that MUNI has been getting major cuts for the last few years, I wonder where it is one will find the money for all these "express buses". Yes it would be nice to have more of 'em, it would also be nice if the N Judah actually went out to Ocean Beach once in a while, or if more of the buses ran on time. But you can't cut tens of millions out of the budget year after year after year and expect to have "more buses."
MUNI should remove every other stop or so.
But then they will no longer be able to say that the 30 can in fact go more than a stop on Stockton without filling up to the brim.
Relax, all those confusing express lines will be removed under the TEP
Effecient, right?
The real question is if folks would pay more money for an express bus. If MUNI thought it could pencil out, they would be on this in a heartbeat.
We hope to find out some of the answer about what is going on at MUNI. And the finished content will be creative commons - which means the SFist could run it for free.
The Transit Effectiveness Project includes increases in limited stop service to address this very problem. Of course these may take a while to get done thanks to the latest budget problems, but the MTA did approve most of the changes.
@mattymatt, line numbering has gotten completely out of hand, thankfully part of the TEP plan is to renumber the bus lines to something more sensible when they make the TEP service changes. Oh that's right, the TEP ain't happening now.
@rzu: Over a decade ago, Muni used to charge more for express service.
But... at the same time, Muni also did not issue transfers, and created two separate passes, one "regular" pass and an "express" pass. The "regular" pass had a 25 cent surcharge for express service and was not valid for BART and Caltrain, and the "express" pass had the exact same policies like today's Fast Passes do.
Unfortunately, the citizens hated it, especially not issuing transfers. In a year, it was over.
Hey, I *am* that "spot.us ... pitch person"! Thanks for the mention, SFist.
The comments here certainly point out some good reasons Muni might have for its existing express service, with money an important limiting factor (especially now). But the express service is one of the core services Muni provides, and it's vital to the city that it work well. I think there still are a bunch of unanswered questions, and the people who ride the expresses -- as well as the people who enjoy their own commutes more because of the effect of all those riders choosing the express instead of cars -- deserve answers.
http://spot.us/pitches/39
P.S.: Cool to see Tiffany Maleshefski contributing to SFist (http://sfist.com/2008/12/09/sfist_drinks_fog_lifter.php). I used to work with her, and I'm sure SFist will like doing so, too.