Category: News

Photo by torbakhopper

• Sunday parking meter enforcement among proposals to trim Muni budget deficit (SF Examiner)
• Linton Johnson, BART Spokesman, Reassigned to New Job (SF Weekly) || (BART.gov)
• Muni chief optimistic despite projected budget shortfall (SF Public Press)
• “Smart” card for SF parking, taxis and maybe Muni in the works (City Insider)
• Muni seeks to cut down on ‘bunches and gaps’ on transit lines (SF Examiner)
• SFMTA Audit Spotlights Poor Project Management, Cost Overruns (Streetsblog SF)
• Muni spending extra $90M due to project delays (SF Examiner)

Photo by Jason Flower

Put those quarters back in your pocket, Muni riders. The SFMTA has scrapped a proposal to begin charging $0.25 for transfers. ABC 7 has the deets:

The agency’s commissioners said on Monday that all revenue options must be explored to help close a projected $34 million deficit. But they took the 25-cent transfer fee off the table, saying that would go against the way Muni is setup.

After our initial post about paid transfers and an overall rate-hike, one commenter pointed out something obvious that no one had touched on up to that point: “aren’t people required to have a transfer as proof of payment, even if they aren’t getting on another bus. In that case, everyOne will have to pay the fee.” Good point. And a moot one now.

Whew!

Read the rest of the ABC 7 story.

Image via Kyle Sullivan

SF Appeal reports that the new director of transportation, Ed Reiskin, will take your comments and questions about Muni at the Rescue Muni board of directors meeting tonight.

Details:
Where: SF County Fair Building, Ninth Avenue and Lincoln
When: 6 p.m.
How to get there: N, 6, 43, 44, 71

This is your chance to Muni’s new head coach whatever it is that’s pissing you off. Go!

Update (9:44 a.m. Monday): SF Weekly reports that the victim has been identified as 71-year-old Manuel Tomaneng.

Update (7:05 p.m.): SFGate reports that the pedestrian in the accident has died from the wounds he sustained.

Update (7:02 p.m.): CBS5 reports that a witness says the pedestrian was jaywalking when he was struck by the Muni bus.

Original post: SFGate reports that a Muni bus has struck a pedestrian in downtown, pinning the pedestrian under its wheels.

Police and firefighters shut down Fifth and Mission Streets for a block while they worked to free the man from under the bus. Using wooden planks, they lifted the bus, freed the victim and took him away in an ambulance. His condition was not known.

Read the rest of the story at SFGate. We’ll update here if we learn more.

Photo by Nick Fisher

SF Examiner reports that, among other proposals, the SFMTA board is once again considering raising the price of a Muni ride and transfer. From the Examiner’s article:

“The cost of a single-trip fare could increase from $2 to $2.25, and passengers who pay in cash could get hit with another 25 cents every time they transfer to another line. Those two programs are projected to generate an extra $5.7 million for the agency.”

That’s to close a projected $80 million deficit. Drop in the bucket, no?

Fares were last raised in July 2009, but we’ve seen incremental hikes in fees a few times since then: January 2010: Fast Pass Fare Increase Today; June 2011: Fast Pass Fares Set to Increase Up to $2 on July 1 (Streetsblog SF).

What do you think of this proposal?