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Thursday, February 25, 2010

The Muni Nightmare Starts Tomorrow - The SFMTA Board Votes

My favorite personal quote about Muni: "We are not digging a tunnel [Central Subway], just a grave for Muni."

And the grave is going to get much deeper and filled with cement if the SFMTA Board does the wrong thing at tomorrow's hearing.

The SFMTA Board will be voting on two major items that will make a major impact on our city.

Item 11 is to consider any changes to the 2010 fiscal year budget for Muni and our worse fears could come to light including:
  1. More reductions in service (e.g., 30 minute frequencies on the 18-46th Avenue).
  2. Paying $4 a ride on Muni.

Item 12 covers the pass issues:
  1. Increasing the price of youth, senior, and disabled passes.
  2. Establishing a "Express Route Premium Monthly Pass" and "Cable Car Premium Monthly Pass."

This has gone way too far.  Nobody will ride a bus line that comes every 30 minutes when school children, elderly, and university students depend to get to where they are going.  Are they nuts to raise the pass price for the young, old, and disabled?

How about us adults?  Do they really expect to now force vendors to sell four passes?  You'll be hearing this more often at your vendor: "Sorry, we ran out of the $60 "M" pass, would you like a premium cable car pass for $100?"  It also doesn't make a lot of sense to penalize citizens who ride an express route just on the local portion, for example, I would sometimes take the 38AX in the evening at 33rd & Geary for a short hop to get home (that's because those idiots at Muni eliminated the 18-46th Avenue's route along Geary Blvd. and Point Lobos Avenue.

I'm starting to lose my patience over this agency.  Does anyone remember the controversial redevelopment project in this city?  It got to such a boiling point that at a hearing, an audience member so upset at the destruction of his community ran up to Justin Herman and grabbed him by the throat.

The SFMTA board better do the right thing for the people, or us citizens will start demanding the resignations of ALL SFMTA BOARD MEMBERS AND NATHANIEL FORD.

3 comments:

- susy - said...

I remember when Muni was 35 cents and I would have to wait 15 minutes at most. Oh how I miss those days. If I knew then what was going to happen in the coming years, I would've kept my trap shut and happily ridden Muni.

I can't believe I pay $70 to ride Muni & BART every month when my Muni bus only comes once every 30-45 minutes. Some days there will be 2 buses within 5 minutes apart. If I miss both of those, i'm S.O.L. and late to work. Unless of course, I drive and pay $12 to park in a garage all day.

How about getting us citizens to work on time so we can fix the economy???

annie said...

If they raise it to 4$/ride, I will start driving to work. Parking is just 10$/day (and I could probably negotiate less if I parked every day), and that extra two dollars is well worth avoiding the disgusting mess that is the 38 Geary.

Nice transit-first city we have here. Let's cut service, raise fairs, overcrowd buses, and continue to pay ridiculous contracts with no penalty for poor performance.

Whole Wheat Toast said...

Maybe not Bruce Oka, I think he's actually one of the Board Members that actually care.