But wait. The Examiner, a local advertising flier, quotes Gavin thusly: "It's so much more complex than that." Oh. And when we spoke to Muni to get their side, they just directed us to Gavin's statements and didn't have anything else to add. Oh. Well then, what's the story, morning glory?

The story so far is this: Gavin noticed that they're spending a lot of money on fare collection, and only bringing in a measly $138,000,000 a year. So why bother collecting fares, he mused aloud. And then the city responded by flipping out: some folks love the idea (yay, free!) and some folks hate it (that $1.50 fee prevents buses from turning into rolling homeless shelters).

And Muni, with its reputation for being one of SF's most secretive organizations, doesn't even want to talk about it: there's a study underway, y'see, and an ongoing conversation, and people are investigating and we'll all know more about the issue ... Which maybe means never.

After the jump: our analysis, including speculation and guesswork.

eventually.