The board of supervisors will vote before July 1 to approve all door boarding on Muni’s buses. Riders will have to tag Clipper when boarding the rear of the bus, provide proof of payment, or suffer a $100 citation. As part of the plan, 10 more fare inspectors will be hired, costing the agency $700k. The upside is big, however, since all door boarding could boost service speed by 1 mph, a savings of $76m a year.
In SFGate’ open forum, SF Supervisor Scott Wiener says that Muni simply can’t afford to shell out $8M for free rides for all youth’s when the SFMTA doesn’t even have the funding to provide essential operations and maintenance. Supervisor Wiener says that Muni needs to focus on having a more reliable system first, and that “Every time the system melts down because a switch fails, a vehicle door won’t close, stairs won’t rise, or a derailment occurs, you can be assured that the problem results from Muni not having the funds to maintain its infrastructure properly.”
Today the SFMTA board will vote on being more open about route on time information. The quarterly reports will also include revised goals involving customer service, maintenance, and other objectives. Currently, the public can view a daily run report on the SFMTA site.
Muni’s on time rate was slightly more timely than usual, now 71.7% for 2011 Q4 compared to Q3’s 71.1%. This ratio continues to fall short of the voter mandated 85% on time rate from 1999’s Prop E. The record for best on time rate based on Prop E’s measurement was set in July 2010: 75%.