Muni doing some serious changes? I think I'm going to vomit. Let's take a look at the briefing from the Chronicle and I'll give you my up-chuck opinions about their idiotic ideas:
Cash fares:
Adult fare to be raised to $2 starting July 1st.
Senior/Youth fare to be raised to: 75 cents starting July 1st.
I don't like this very much, but as we all know, tons of transit agencies are jacking up fares. At least they won't sell 50 cent transfers.
Fast Pass:
Adult: $55 on July 1st and $60 on January 1st, 2010.
Youth, Senior, and Disabled: $20 on July 1st.
No word yet if Muni will sell a premium pass to cover expresses and BART.
Parking:
Up 50 cents an hour with operation on holidays except the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's.
$2 an hour for parking? Holy crap! At least they won't enforce Sunday parking. Damn to the assholes who park on Irving Street for hours on Sundays. I have to drive around the block five times before even something opens up.
Muni bus cuts:
4, 7, 16X, 20, 26, 53, 74X, and 89.
Good riddance to the 74X CultureBus. The public knew that was a total waste. Boo to the end of the 89 Laguna Honda because that bus serves the very steep hills of the Laguna Honda Hospital. Who will foot the transit bill for people who can't take a car to the hospital? ADA reasons you Muni idiots. Cancelling the 16X is not a great idea, so where's the nearest express alternative? Nowhere near, unless if you want to get to Balboa for the 31AX or BX.
Can't Muni use their brain a little bit more? Translink works right now! I want to advocate for Translink by telling Muni that they should be getting on full public roll-out right now. Faster boarding, less cost on Muni to print transfers, less staff needed to count money from the fareboxes, lower maintenance costs on fareboxes, metro turnstiles, and metro ticket machines at outside platforms, and plenty more. So what's the damn delay Muni?
The fare hike was sort of bound to happen and although I'm a bit annoyed at the 50 cent increase, I'm not furious. As a San Franciscan living in New York, I've gotten used to paying at least $2 for transit. Considering the fact that I pay $81 for a 30-day MetroCard for the New York subway, Muni still seems like a deal. The New York MTA will be raising the fares to $2.50 for a single ride, and $103 for a 30-day MetroCard.
ReplyDeleteI also relieved that they're not charging for transfers.
Personally, I think they should reward users of TransLink for increasing boarding speeds. In many cities there are discounts for using any kind of prepaid card. Perhaps they should keep the TransLink fare down at $1.50 and then charge $2 for cash fares. Here in New York, using a MetroCard actually costs approximately 1.73 per ride because we have the 15% bonus for adding more than $7 worth of credit. In London, Oyster Card journey fares are almost half of the cash fare.
In terms of the service cuts, I can't wait to see the CultureBus get eliminated, but I also agree that deleting the 16X would be a bad idea until they find away to speed up the N Judah and the 71.
I thought they were only canceling the 16AX. And the N itself ain't very fast either
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