Rescue Muni

In the wake of the MTA’s approval of a 10% service cut and Fast Pass increases over our protest (and that of many others) last Friday, at least two and possibly three protests appear to have been scheduled today – for the same time and place, 5 pm at Powell and Market. At a minimum there will be a gathering of the March Against Muni group, which is organizing a boycott of the system and/or a fare strike and demanding cuts in “excessive pay”, and also the International ANSWER led rally discussed in Beyond Chron. There may also be a union-led event there as well.

Rescue Muni is not participating in or sponsoring any of these events, but we thought you should be informed, if only so you can take the subway through the area. (Why? We don’t want to march against Muni – we want it to get the support, and more importantly the funding, it needs. And we don’t endorse the divisive behavior and irrational demands of ANSWER, which is best known for anti-war protests and has little to no transit knowledge.)

Update: Here’s what happened.

You don’t want to sit in traffic with a bunch of drunk out of towners on New Year’s Eve, do you? Take mass transit instead! Muni will be offering free rides after 8 pm and extra service until 4 am, and BART, Caltrain, AC Transit, SamTrans, Golden Gate Transit, and other services will be offering extra service throughout the evening.

Want to know if you have time for a nightcap? Check NextMuni for arrival times at the stop nearest your celebration venue of choice. iPhone users, try the $3 Routesy application (cheaper than a cab ride) which automatically checks your location (assuming the GPS is behaving that day).

SF Bay Area transit operators are hoping for new mass transit investment from the feds as part of the upcoming stimulus package as well as reauthorized transportation spending bills. Among the proposed projects are big BART expansions, Caltrain electrification, and Muni projects as small as upgraded fare gates and as large as the Central Subway. But will the new secretary of transportation share these goals? We shall see.

We too have entered the 140 character world of Twitter. Sign up for blog updates and other miscellaneous Muni related items at twitter.com/rescuemuni. No spam, we promise!

Update: Muni Diaries is twittering too. And so is BART, and (unofficially) Caltrain. Will Muni or MTA be next?

Even though gasoline prices are dropping, the Washington Post reports that mass transit ridership continues to grow, setting a new record in the third quarter of 2009. Perhaps Congress and Sen. Obama should take this into account when thinking about where to spend the proposed stimulus package – more on mass transit and less on highways?