More big cuts coming to Muni, including $5 F line fare?
SF Streetsblog has a detailed article on proposed mid-year budget cuts to be discussed at the MTA board next week. Among the cuts and fare hikes, none of which are pretty, are some particularly bad ideas: jacking up F-line fares to $5 and requiring express and cable car riders to use the new premium pass, making the citywide network much less useful to the typical rider (and providing a perverse disincentive to riders to take faster, more efficient services).
Some proposals appear to be helpful, like charging employees for parking, but it appears that most of these budget cuts will hit riders, who are already paying more starting this month, square in the face. Meanwhile, MTA operators just received a bonus – not for performance, but because the voters mandated a pay minimum in 2007 Prop A.
You can comment on these proposals at the regularly scheduled MTA Board meeting on Tuesday, January 19, at 2 pm. Of course the meeting is being held during normal business hours, so if you work for a living, you might want to email your comments to the board.
This is going too far, and is proof how cynical the Mayor and his new entourage of cynical political hacks around him at City Hall are. They barely mentioned Muni in the State of the City address citing the “political problem” then push this out on a Friday afternoon.
This is proof that his rhetoric about “green city” and all that is crap, and it’s time to stop kissing up to the powerful at city hall and demand a better solution. At the rate we are going we are going to have a system that pays people well to sit on their ass, pays big executive pay and pensions, and does not serve the citizens of SF it is supposed to do.
Muni fares are not high relative to income and many employers hand out transit checks so the fast pass is free to many employees. As a senior, my fast pass is almost free. I have paid that much for one lunch.
Charging more for premium service such as express buses makes sense. Maybe Muni should also consider higher fares for limited stop buses with fewer stops.
I agree with the sentiment about a system that pays people to sit on their ass. Perhaps the system needs competition. That could be the answer to better service.
The problem with charging extra for express and limited service is that it provides a disincentive to using faster service – when we want as many riders as possible on the faster buses, to make service faster for everyone. And it’s completely unfair to charge extra for the F line when so many riders use it as their main commuting method.
MTA really needs to look again at extended meter hours before doing any of these. And they should hold off reappointing Ford until all of the budget issues are resolved.
CCo SF should seize the gas tax /sales tax collected with the County and keep the voter msndated percentage. Let the Governator and legislaors try suing to get it back.
As t o punishing riders for choosing the most efficient bus this is insane. It costs fewer $$ to transport a rider on an Express or Limited than a local going the same distance.