Muni Diaries

Source: ResetSF

BREAKING NEWS: most riders aren’t satisfied with Muni, but aren’t sure where SFMTA will find the money to improve it.

This is according to a survey by Assessor Recorder Phil Ting (who is also in the running for mayor). His website, ResetSF, sent out a survey to “1700 San Francisco voters with email addresses” and was conducted from Feb. 25 to March 1. Last week, some of you told us that you received an email survey about Muni, and some people on Twitter even thought that SFMTA sent the survey.

We asked ResetSF about their methodology and here’s what they told us:

“The survey was sent to every registered voter in San Francisco for whom we have voter file. The total is about 100,000 in that category – and in the week the survey was out more than 1750 completed it.”

ResetSF says this is a “pretty good representation of San Franciscans with emails who are fluent in English” (the survey was only conducted in English), but ResetSF folks said they “don’t really have reason to think there is much difference when it comes to the MUNI.” Because the survey was online, it skews toward younger respondents.

More about the demographic of the respondents:

49% male, 47% female (balance refused to answer).

67% straight, 20 LGBT or Bi.

61% White, 12% Asian, 5% Latino, 3% African American.

77% under age 50 and 33% over age 50.

So there’ s your grain of salt.

In their quick poll, Phil Ting/ResetSF found the unsurprising fact that most people don’t have a great impression of Muni:

Just 7% of people have a “very favorable” impression of MUNI with 24% reporting “very unfavorable.” Overall, 44% of the respondents to the online poll had a very or somewhat favorable opinion of MUNI, while 56% had a somewhat or very negative impression of the San Francisco Municipal Railway.

And people can’t agree on how to raise funds to fix Muni. ResetSF’s survey respondents don’t want transportation utility fees, parking tax, or more parking tickets. So I guess we’re back to where we were before — nobody likes the way things are, and nobody knows where to get the money to fix the things we don’t like. Hmm.

Details of the Reset SF Muni Survey.

Photo by Timmy

Just a few days after reports of the California Public Utilities Commission lodged allegations of Muni’s worn tracks and faulty equipment, the San Francisco Examiner delves further into the CPUC’s report to find “human error”-type infractions. From the Examiner’s story:

Many of the violations discovered by CPUC inspectors involve worn tracks, exposed wires, malfunctioning emergency phones and overgrown vegetation along the tracks, while a handful involve apparent human error.

On April 26, a state inspector observed an operator whose train was on automatic “closing his eyes while the train was moving.”

“The operator appeared to be asleep,” the inspection report said. “The operator had his right leg extended up on the trash can and his left arm was leaning on the left side of the control console. The operators head was resting in his left hand, while his eyes where closed and his mouth was open [sic].”

Other issues include speeding in a school zone, deboarding to buy snacks (something we’re all too familiar with here), and reading the paper while the LRV was operating under automatic control “an inspector observed a train operator whose cab had a number of newspapers in plain view. While the inspector did not see the operator reading the papers, the appearance was ‘that at some time during his shift he was being distracted by the news articles.'”

Read more at the Examiner.