Updates to SFMTA/Muni Changes including cancellation of 38-Geary Ocean Beach branch

It turned out the Chronicle article did not mention a few things about the proposed changes from the SFMTA Board. So I'm going to revise the pricing changes:

Cash Fare
Adult goes from $1.50 to $2.00 on July 1st.
Discount goes from $0.50 to $0.75

Adult Fast Pass
From $45 (w/BART) to $50 on July 1 (w/BART), and to $60 on January 1 (w/out BART).
Fast passes will not include BART service for the new year.

Youth/Senior/Disabled Fast Pass
From $10 to $15 on July 1, and to $20 on January 1.

"Premium" Fast Pass with BART privileges:
Effective January 1, 2010: Adult is $70, and Discount is $30.
This is a new concept to allow all youth and elderly passengers to take advantage of a higher priced Muni pass to ride BART within San Francisco. Good deal for youth because the age cut-off for the red colored BART ticket is much younger than the 18 year old age limit on Muni passes.

There are other fare changes including Muni passports, Paratransit, and Candlestick/Special Event service listed on the SFMTA's website (PDF document), but I won't list it here because us locals don't always use these services as heavily as the ones listed above.


The cancellation of the 38-Geary Ocean Beach branch:
The proposed elimination of the Ocean Beach branch of the 38-Geary line is going to cause serious problems and hardships to everyone who rides this branch, but also passengers who ride the 38 or 38L east of 33rd Avenue.

1. Muni's website mentioned that they will replace the terminated Ocean Beach service with buses going from downtown to 33rd Avenue. Unfortunately, Muni is really stupid because that location has no 60 foot parking areas there to let the drivers take their break. They can't park where the 1-California is parked because the curbs are only as big to fit one bus (40 ft.), and people's garages are there. They can't increase service to Ft. Miley or 48th Avenue/Pt. Lobos because they are already at capacity. This could just mean Muni will just delete the Ocean Beach service and there will be less buses on the road, therefore meaning an even worse ride home.
   
2. The 18-46th Avenue, a crosstown route (Legion of Honor to Stonestown/SFSU) will take the brunt of the 38-Geary's Ocean Beach branch route, but it leaves a very serious lack of service to the Cliff House, which as we all know has extremely steep hills, and we as a city have a responsibility to accommodate disabled passengers to access that area. The 18-46th Avenue bus line accomplishes this. Plus, 38-Geary passengers will get pissed that they will have to exit at 33rd avenue and wait 20 minutes for the 18-46th Avenue to transport them home on the Ocean Beach branch route. Plus, the elimination of the Cliff House route for the 18-46th Avenue will strain the already popular route with students, elderly, and the rest of the public because Muni will less than likely increase buses because of the much longer amount of time needed to drive the (soon to be) former Ocean Beach branch route that was operated by the 38.

I don't really get it these days. It costs MORE to get LESS service? Hell, I might as well drive to work more often than handle this bullshit. I think it's time for Muni Chief Nat Ford to take at least a 50K salary cut.