According to a new Muni survey, 72% of riders rated the city’s public transit service as “good” or “excellent,” though that comes with the catch that the more frequently people ride Muni, the less satisfied they are with it.
The San Francisco public transit service Muni has been doing rider satisfaction surveys every year since 2001. And the results are cause for celebration this year, or at least that's what Muni says. Because according to the Chronicle, Muni saw its highest rider satisfaction level in the history of that survey this year, with 72% of survey respondents rating the Muni service as “good” or “excellent” in that latest poll.
For comparison's sake, only 66% of riders said Muni service was “good” or “excellent” in the 2022 survey, and 57% said so in 2021. Muni has not scored this well in the 23-year history of the survey.
“Thanks to the creativity and commitment of our staff, Muni is safer, faster, cleaner, and more reliable than it’s been in decades,” SFMTA Director of Transportation Jeff Tumlin said in a press release touting the favorable survey results. “Our passengers have noticed. Muni ridership continues to grow, with our most popular routes exceeding pre-COVID levels, and we have the best approval ratings we've seen in over two decades.”
But there’s a catch to all this that Tumlin does not mention. The survey also found that the more frequently people ride Muni, the less satisfied they are with it. The 72% of respondents saying Muni service is “good” or “excellent” is bolstered by a 90% approval rating from people who only ride Muni about once a week. But among people who ride Muni five days a week or more, only 63% rated the service as “good” or “excellent.”
That’s in line with previous years’ surveys that found more frequent Muni riders had a lower opinion of the agency’s service.
The agency scored particularly strong marks on operators being considered helpful, and on accessibility for individuals with disabilities. But respondents rated the agency more poorly on safety and overcrowding issues.
And as an addendum, the Chronicle adds that “52% of respondents either saw or experienced acts of harassment on Muni,” according to this year’s survey.
Image: SFMTA
