I Hate Muni

Did anyone see this last night?

http://www.ktvu.com/news/14155458/detail.html

 Apparently, an unknown  greasy substance is creeping into the garages and basements of residents in Balboa Park, not 200 yards from a MUNI yard.   This is what gets me:

“Wednesday Muni said it doesn’t know what the substance is and referred KTVU to the City Sewer Department. The sewer department said it’s a matter for the Health Department, while the Health Department theorized that the substance is antifreeze, but claimed it was up to the residents to figure out what it is.”

 Can you believe that bureaucratic nonsense?  I feel like I’m in Terry Guilliam’s Brazil.    Why isn’t the city more concerned?  Why is it that the residents have to hire a lawyer to figure out what that substance is?  I would think that the city would be seriously concerned if there was a possibility that something toxic is seeping into people’s houses.  Not this city.  Did they think that the residents would just ignore it?  18 homes and their foundations are being affected by this goo and the city decides to put it’s head in the sand.  Thanks a lot Muni, Sewer Dept, and Health Dept.   Thanks for punting these people around and showing how truly inept the city can be.

 Meanwhile, the chronicle reports that MUNI will be focusing on the ten busiest lines to help improve customer satisfaction.  Well cheers to that!  Focusing on the lines that carry 3 out of every 4 MUNI riders is the right step.  I hope that they realize that bus stops every other block is inefficient and they would be better funded if they implemented higher security.    Also, more stringent ticketing on double parked vehicles.    I want to encourage optimism here but I can’t help but think this analysis will take another year.   From the Chron:

“Chisholm spoke Wednesday to Muni chief Nathaniel Ford and other transit leaders who serve on the policy advisory panel for the Transit Effectiveness Project, a cumbersome title given to an in-depth study of Muni’s routes, schedules and performance”

Chisholm has his work cut out for him.  Do you see the layers here? “policy advisory panel for the Transit Effectiveness Project?”  Too much pork sitting on their hands.  Isn’t this what the panel should have been doing all along.  I want to stay positive but I can’t help but worry that Chisholm and gang have a lot of bureaucratic BS to wade through.  Notice that there is nothing in the article that mentions driver accountability. 

According to the Chronicle, San Francisco is investigating a plan to implement congestion pricing similar to that of London and Stockholm.  What the article failed to consider were the public transportation systems of those said areas.  Stockholm’s Lightrail system is a wonder, displaying map after map of service.   London Transit is a marvel according to friends who have been on it.  These efficient systems offer a manageable alternative to clogging up roads.  The CBC news reports that 3 million people ride the London subways everyday. 

 MUNI is not an acceptable alternative to driving a car.  It continues to be strong-armed by it’s Union, failing in anyway to be accountable for it’s failures in providing the city with reliable transportation.   Despite the lack of parking in the city, despite the congestion, my last year riding on MUNI has been so aggravating that I am seriously considering buying a car.   It is no secret that drivers do not have to call in sick; they simply don’t show up for work, the result is that there are “ghost” buses that never show up.  There could be a 20 minute interval in the middle of rush hour due to this chronic problem.  That is absolutely pathetic. 

This city has a fair amount of wealthy car owners who will not feel a dent in their pockets with congestion pricing.  The average citizen barely making their $2000 rent for their 1 bedroom apartment in Noe Valley will feel the crunch the most.   Rather than punishing people on the road, why doesn’t the city ask why they are on the road in the first place?   Despite what critical mass riders may preach on their soap boxes, people will always need to drive, be it to the grocery store or taking their kids to soccor practice.   The key thing, is how do we make them drive less, particularly, how do we get drivers to take mass transportation (or bike) to work.  Incentives, not punishments need to be implemented.  Mayor Gavin Hotsom should ask for the resignation of everyone in the MUNI management beaurocratic disaster and start fresh with competent advocates of public transportation, not fat cats in the pockets of the union. 

While this blog (or admitidly, rantings) is steered mostly at MUNI, and while BART appears to MUNI riders as a saintly choir boy who always helps his mother wash dishes, there are some points to be made about BART and this proposed investigation of congestion pricing. 

Yes, Marin and San Jose have both turned down BART extensions, though I should add that that was before the latest boom in Silicon valley, when the small population of San Jose (along with Santa Clara, Mountain Veiw, etc.) couldn’t really justify the taxes for it.  However,  times have changed I believe if put on the ballot, it may come to pass that they would be willing to pay the half percent of sales taxes to implement such an extension, much to the dismay of the millions of citizens who have been paying the additional taxes for years to get BART up on it’s feet.  The political quagmire is overwhelming isn’t it?  Why don’t we just repeal Prop 13 while we are at it. 

The smaller steps that need to be done in relieving congestion in San Francisco should truly be focused on public transportation, not in punishing citizens (especially citizens who would rather take Public Transportation, but don’t because of its pathetic performance).  

So far, little improvement has been seen on MUNI, especially with the baseball games.  Why in God’s name do they hold up the trains in the Embarcadero station until they are completely filled and then send them along to the stadium?  Don’t they realize that they are causing a huge delay by backing up all the cars behind Embarcadero?  What should be 20 minute ride to the Castro street station then becomes an hour long nightmare.  But as my partner always says, “You can’t fix stupid.” Well I think we can.  Fix MUNI first before making this an even more expensive city to live in. 

As most Muni riders can attest to, this week has been hell! I was fooled to think that change with the T line would be an improvement but I was wrong. It probably doesn’t help that this is week 2 on crutches, but I digress. The one thing that has improved is the on-time ratio of the 24 during morning rush hour. For the past 3 months a certain bus driver was predictably MIA on Mondays and throughout the week. The new driver showed up to work every day this week! I’m impressed. Bravo new driver! Bravo! The underground, on the other hand, has been God’s punishment to me for my lapse Catholic ways. It has been the on earth representation of hell below the city streets.

If you made the unfortunate mistake this week of getting to the Castro underground station any time between 8am and 8:30am, it was an hour commute to Embarcadero. It was a brutal crunch factor in the trains, creeping along, stopping, creeping along, stopping and no explanation as to why or how this was happening. Tuesday was the worst. It took 1 hour and 20 minutes to get from the Castro to the Embarcadero. I have never been so motivated in my life to buy a car, to move to the East Bay and take BART, or to simply shoot myself. This kind of performance on Muni’s part is completely unacceptable. Blah blah, I’ve said this before, and I blame the Unions. That’s right I blame the unions for this crap. There is no room for any kind of accountability or reprimand. You show up when you want, bonuses when you’re on time and no recourse for chronic tardiness. I’ve never had a job where this was acceptable. The unions have tied the city’s hands and it’s time end the corrupt institution that hides behind the façade of public transportation.

Mental image of my commute this week:

Young woman on crutches, squeezing on to some random inbound train. Everything is so packed no one can even offer a seat. The train creeps along then does a sudden stop and the weight of 20 people move together like a wave of water. The young woman’s swollen ankle is bumped and pushed along with the wave. She looks up in anguish and then painfully rubs her forehead in complete misery and despair.

I just finished my first week of using Muni on crutches.  I’d say that 80% of my experience was positive with many kind and thoughtful gestures on behalf of both Muni riders and Muni drivers, especially the 24 driver at 7:50ish in the a.m.  However, there is this 20% of mind blowing nastiness that appalled me this week.  Look, I’m no saint and I don’t expect to be  welcomed with rose petals and trumptes but geezus, some kindness for a Mrs. Crutches on the hills of San Francisco would be nice, you know?  So here’s what happened:

I get on the 24 and take it down to Castro and Market, no problem.  Get to Market and I see an F-line.  This is ideal because it will take me right to the front door of my work.  Dealing with the underground on crutches, during rush hour, is freakin suicide.  So I’ll go for the slower F.  It slowly pulls up to the platform and it has a red light, as do I.  I make eye contact with the driver and he pulls off the platform even thought the light is still red.  I J hobble over to the side of the streetcar and ask him to let me in.  He opens the door and says that he can’t let me on because he would be liable if I fell.  ARGH!  I proceeded to yell that this was totally lame, and that he saw me and decided he didn’t want to deal with someone on crutches so he pulled off the platform.  I think I said something like, “Shame on you, bad bad bad kharma. “  Yeah, totally articulate right?

I decided to brave the underground and hobble down the escalators.  It was pretty scary but everything went well.  I’ve noticed a dramatic improvement in Muni since they changed the routes around.  Bravo!

Being grateful to Muni can be hard nowadays but I found myself wiping my brow this morning as I squeezed onto the 24. The bus stopped at one more stop before abandoning several riders for the next 4 stops. I have not had the pleasure of having Muni drive right past me with my $45 fastpass in hand but if it ever did, I would probably leave a turd on Nathaniel Ford’s executive Muni desk. Anyways, I decide to get off at 18th and Castro to escape my sardine entrapment, thinking I could make it down a block to Market and Castro before the bus. I kind of made it, though I was behind the bus crowd. I got through the turnstile and there’s a half-empty T train in the station. I run down the stairs, jump off the first landing just in time to watch the train chug out of the station.

I hopped on the M and it proceeded to crawl through the tunnel, sniffing the T’s behind the whole time.

Speaking of grateful, there was an article in the Chron today. Looks like the folks in Mission Bay have it significantly worse…

Bizarro MUNI day on Friday. I think this was some secret karma conspiracy because I snuck out of work early on Friday without telling anyone, but I digress.

So I jump on at Embarcadero, say 4:30pm and see that there is no J in sight. The platform had a pack factor of 9 and it was announced that an M was coming into the station. I shrugged and decided just to go to Castro and hike the hill instead of waiting for the illusive J. Lo and behold, it wasn’t an M coming through, it was that trendy little T train coming through the hole. I shrug again, that’ll get me to Castro too.

I do some sneaky moves through the crowd and get on the T. As I walk in, my ass slightly bumps some old lady car. As I turn around to apologize, she SPANKS me! Yes, open palm, old lady spanks my ass. So instead of “I’m sorry,” I ended up saying, “What the fuck?!” She proceeds to go on some monologue that went something like this:

“Yes! That’s what you get! I specifically sat here so that no one would bump my cart. You horrible Americans! If I was in Holland, this wouldn’t have happened. They have special seats for people with carts. Rude Americans!”

And I probably proved her right by saying, “So go back to Holland!”

Another rant ensued and I bit my tongue and decided not to fuel the fire. A cute Metro Boy Toy from Castro sat next to me and told me a comparable story down in the Castro. I took a deep breadth and noticed that crazy lady was screaming and accusing a nanny of kidnapping children. MUNI Springer at the Embarcadero.

Now this is where MUNI comes into my little drama. After Van Ness, The Train does a jerky turn and the inside signs turn from T to J. The MUNI driver had forgotten to turn the signs. Now there are 2 cars of rush hour Financial District worker-bees on the wrong train!The grumbling begins and everyone looked at each other with mutual worry. By the time we get to Duboce and Church, people are pissed. After much yelling and the MUNI-eye-roll, everyone empties the train. There was no apology or explanation. For me it was sheer luck because now I wouldn’t have to hope for the 24 to take me over the hill.

Muni = 0

Me = 1

Old Lady = 1

This letter was found on Muni on Thursday, April 12th. We couldn’t find it on the Muni website so we thought we would post it here…

Dear Muni Customers–

On behalf of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), I would like to express our apologies for the frusttrations you have experienced with Muni service over the last few days. We recognize that the quality of service that we have provided on out light real system is unacceptal.

As you may know, on Saturday, April 7, we began full revenue service on the T-Third light rail line, which expanded service gtom weekends to full service seven days a week. Other service changes went into edffect at the same time inluding revisions to the 9x, 10, 15, and 54 bus lines and the J-Church, N-Judah, and S-Castro rail lines.

Since full system integration, we have experienced delays at two locations: 1)Castro Station and 2) the Embarcadero Station. This is in part due to the increase of trains in our subway tunnels. Unfortunately these delays have resulted in extended travel times for many. In order to manage these delays and minimize the impact to our customers, we have deployed additional managerial staff at both the Castro Station and Embarcadero Station platforms.

A third location is also causing delays for our cutomers. Fourth and King Street is a complex intersection with multiple modes of transportation. While we are assessing how best to resolve these delays, we deployed Parking Control Officers to manage the flow of traffic and transit and ensure pedestrian safety.

Please know that we are working night and day to mitigate our service problems and provide you with tiely, safe and efficient service. WE are also redoubling out efforts to ensure that system and operator announcements are made when a delay occurs. We are striving to meet your expectations. We genuinely appreciate your patience and thank you for riding Muni.

For more information about SFMTA, or updates regarding these services changes please visit www.sfmta.com.

We wish this website didn’t exist and we hope for a day when we can bring it down with much fanfare but unfortunately,  that day is not today.  With the continuing delays, failures and bizarre Muni stories, we needed a place to vent and share on our frustrations.  Now let us make this clear, we love public transportation, in fact, we moved here from Oakland in part to be car-less.  What a premature idea that was!  After riding the efficient Seattle Metro and New York’s MTA, we expected something practical and reliable in one of the bigger cities in the United States.  Instead, it takes longer to get from the Castro street station to Embarcadero than it does to take Bart from 19th St Oakland to Embarcadero!

I want Muni to work, I want it to work so badly and I dream of when a reliable Muni will alleviate the city’s parking problems.  Of course, what incentive do we have to ditch our cars for Public Transportation?  And Gavin Hotsome wants us to wait?  Wait for what?  Another meltdown?   How hard could this be?  Why can Portland, Seattle, New York, even LA have better public transportation than the city by the bay, the green city?  The crazy thing is that all these cities have POSTED time tables on the bus stops, schedules in the bus, and some have free rides in the city limits.   The excuses fall short and on deaf ears to the largely immigrant San Francisco population that has ridden on better public transportation systems in other cities.

We heard at a meeting that Muni has a vision to put a bus line on every other street.  What an insane pipe dream!  I propose that they concentrate on the major arteries and increase the buses on those said arteries.  I would rather walk 3-4 blocks to an artery where I know a bus is running every 5-10 minutes during rush hour.  The city is only 7 miles x 7 miles.  Why do we need a bus on every other street?  We need more buses on the arteries and they don’t have to stop every other block.  If these are the kind of goals held by Muni, then we are heading for tougher commutes.

Did something crazy happen to you on Muni today?  Yesterday?  We want to know.  We’re building a page where we can post bizarre, agonizing, and stressy Muni experiences submitted by you, the Riders.   Did something wonderful happen to you on Muni?  We want to know that too.