Author: jeff

Should You Pay When the Clipper Card Reader Is Broken? (update from MTA)

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New Clipper Card and Carrying Case
Photo by AgentAkit

Update (12:45 p.m.): We just heard back from SFMTA. Apparently, when the machines are broken, drivers are not supposed to make cardholders pay, regardless of whether the rider has his/her Fast Pass loaded on the card. Here’s a document SFMTA says they sent to operators notifying them of this change in procedure:

So, in Lisa’s case (see “Original post,” below), the driver was wrong to ask her to pay. Maybe that driver didn’t get the memo, literally. It’s dated June 29, which was Tuesday, the day before Lisa’s incident.

Original post: What do Fast Pass holders do when Clipper readers don’t work? You’ve paid $70 or so for the Fast Pass, but should you still pay the $2 if the Clipper reader can’t read your card?

Muni rider and Clipper Card holder Lisa shares this story (excerpted):

I was trying to catch the 28 [Wednesday] morning around 6:30 a.m. at 19th Ave and Holloway and the translink readers on the bus were down. The driver tells me I have to pay cash fare when the reader is down and that’s policy. I tried to explain to her that that made no sense as I had a monthly pass and, therefore, had already paid regardless of the reader.She said no, it’s policy, that I had a translink card and not a pass. I said, I paid for a pass, your readers are always down, I ride everyday and no one has ever said this to me before. But she still said I had to pay. So, in the end, I refused to pay on principle, and the driver would not allow me to ride, despite having paid my $70 for my monthly pass. I was 20 minutes late to work. I should have just gotten on the back with the rest the fare dodgers.

We don’t see any information on the Clipper site about this situation (neither the FAQ page nor Clipper with specific transit agencies pages). And we can easily envision this situation happening with increasing frequency as more and more riders use Clipper with their Fast Pass loaded onto the card.

What do you think? How do you think this situation should be handled? Even better, has Clipper considered this situation and devised a fix for it?

We asked SFMTA and will update you as soon as we hear back.

Related: Akit has a post up today about Clipper/Fast Pass holders whose passes aren’t loading by the first of the month, and aren’t being given the 3-day “grace period.” Kinks, they abound!

Category: diaries Tags: ,

A better way to transfer between Muni and BART

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The awesome Mr Eric Sir has a great idea for easier BART-to-Muni or Muni-to-BART transfers:

See? We eliminate two flights of stairs and save up to 5 minutes or so.

So what’s the rub, why didn’t they build the station like this in the first place?

It seems there simply isn’t enough room to have all the extra faregates and ticket machines we’d need on the station platforms. Or at least, it USED to be that way.

But now that we have Clipper, couldn’t we make do with less? All you’d have to do is exit Muni and tag on to Bart. Or in the other direction, tag off Bart and on to Muni.

Muni trains already have Clipper machines inside the train, and it’s a proof-of-payment system, so gates aren’t really needed. Bart could just have a couple faregates at the platform level. It wouldn’t have to take up too much space.

Wethinks this should be on a list of shovel-ready, high-priority stimulus jobs. You listening, Mr. Prez?

Above ossum grafik by Mr Eric Sir.

Category: diaries, Funny: Muni LOLs

Muni Playlist: From Kanye to Kerouac

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SF Muni
Photo by laughlin

Early last week, we asked you what you were listening to on Muni. We can’t help it: we want to know what’s emanating from those sexy earbuds you’ve got in there, drowning out the noise around you as you slip into your own private headspace.

Today’s playlist is the A side, if you will, of the musical selections you sent us via comments and tweets. The B side (in no way inferior to this one) drops next week. Stay tuned. In the meantime, check out what your fellow Muni riders are rocking out to. Here they are, in their own words:

  • @anniebanannie kanye west (we took the liberty of choosing “Heartless”)
  • @revunderpants #Pavement! (we chose “Gold Soundz”)
  • @tonyriggins Jeezy “Put On” … for my city. Perfect for people watching on the Embarcadero
  • Lola LCD Soundsystem (This is Happening), Massive Attack (Heligoland), Matt and Kim (Grand), and Broken Social Scene (Forgiveness Rock Record)
  • Dancing Penguin Dog&Panther – Love Make // The Sweet Serenades – Die Young // Neon Walrus – We Don’t Matter // We Are Enfant Terrible – Seagull // Bonaparte – My Body is a Battlefield // MNDR – I go away…
  • Andrea My morning entertainment this morning was . . . Blues and Haikus – from Jack Kerouac, Al Cohn and Zoot Zims.
  • Sam “Bulletproof” by La Roux

For your listening (and possibly viewing, if you’ve got that kind of time in your day) pleasure, we’ve created another Muni Playlist on YouTube. Enjoy!

Want another soundtrack from the bus? Check out last fall’s Muni playlist,

Category: Aww: Cute on Muni, diaries Tags:

Photo diary: SF Pride 2010

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_ATP9212
Photo by angryf

Now that life is returning to “normal” (whatever that is), we have some great photos from SF Pride weekend 2010 to share. The first, above, was taken by angryf:

Castro near Divisadero. I’m taking the pic thru the glass on the back of the Muni stop. It was taken Saturday night after Pride and the police where clearing out Market because of the shooting.

Here are a few more cool photos we scrounged up:

heading underground • sf
Photo by creativeholly.com

Creative Holly says: “saw this and said nevermind…i’ll walk.”
saw this and said nevermind…
Photo by creativeholly.com

A SF Bus Terminal Pride
Photo by LiveSoMa

If you have more Muni photos from Pride weekend, email them to us or submit them to our Flickr Muni Photos group.

Category: diaries, Photos Tags:

More paper Fast Pass extinction dates

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another month, another muni pass
Photo by chuckbiscuito

A couple weeks ago, we told you about how Muni is phasing out the beloved colorful paper Fast Pass. At the time, we only had solid information about the adult “A” passes (the sure-to-be-a-collectors-item last ones printed will be October 2010).

But Akit has awesomely dug more information, and he reports the following:

  • Youth and Senior paper passes will end February 2011. The last paper passes will be issued for January 2011.
  • Adult “M” Muni Only paper passes will end April 2011. The last paper pass will be issued for March 2011.

So there you have it, folks. The die-hard among you can get the $60 Muni-only pass in lieu of the then-extinct $70 Muni-and-BART-within-SF pass. You know, if you want …

Category: News
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