A civil grand jury has found that Muni's practice of "switchbacks," in which a fully functioning bus is taken out of service and turned around in order to avoid "bunching" at the end of the line, is "an insult to passengers" and should be stopped. What should Muni do instead to avoid this "bunching"? Do a better job of dispatching busses and learn how to operate a transit system at rush hour in an effective manner, for a start.

Muni defends the switchback practice, saying that it's something that's done by other transit agencies, however the grand jury cited cities like Paris, Boston, and Seattle as places that only do such a thing in the case of emergency. They said in a report that making people off-board a bus before the end of the line and make them wait for the next bus is "an ineffective and time-consuming strategy that does not help Muni to maintain schedules." They should instead better staff the Muni control center and to add short runs in dense areas during peak commute hours.

Next on the agenda should be a re-engineering of the underground metro so that cars do not have to have such ridiculous spaces between them, and so that adequate numbers of double-car trains run at rush hour to avoid sardine-can passenger loads and frustrated commuters who have to watch multiple trains pass by them with no room for another person near any of the doors.

[BCN/Appeal]
[Examiner]