Friday commute: Déjà vu of disaster

Hmmm... another Friday afternoon commute of agony. Had to walk home today, because the tunnel was inexplicably shut down (again) during evening rush hour. I think I'm going to start a database of Muni Metro shutdowns and doing some data-mining to find patterns. Some friends who work for Muni told me that the afternoons are always worse than the mornings, and actually had an answer for me about WHY.

The problem is one of line and yard management. In the morning peak, each yard sends out the service with a team of line-management pros (they called these people by their official titles but I don't remember those). The problem is, when Muni balanced their budget they had to cut something so they eliminated a lot of the line management folks in the afternoon shifts. Those are the people who make sure that the vehicles aren't bunched together and are leaving the yards at the right time. Without that, the drivers just sorta "wing it".

So finally, I think I understand why the afternoons are worse than the mornings. How many times have YOU sat in the tunnel watching the next-train sign show that it's going to be N, J, N-N, J, K...

Any chance we can get that line management back by, oh, pulling staff off the outrageously expensive Chinatown subway project?

Please just let me pay my fare!

No other transit system I've ever used is so hostile toward infrequent riders. Ask anyone who's ever visited San Francisco how maddening it is to take BART into the city, and then try to transfer to Muni at Civic Center or Embarcadero. No cross-platform transfer; no useful signage; no integrated ticket (except fastpass but that's for residents).

The kiosk agents don't take cash (half of the kiosks sit empty anyway); and the change machines won't take $20 bills, or the ones that do only return four $5 bills which are useless at the Muni turnstiles.

My friend visiting last weekend actually got yelled at by the BART kiosk agent, telling him "This is a BART station!! If you need change, go upstairs to Burger King." Which he did -- and they wouldn't change his $20, so he ended up taking a taxi cab.

Plus, the daily and weekly passes are almost impossible to find unless you already know where to go to get them. Even visitors who want to ride Muni are discouraged every step of the way.

Here are some suggestions which would make Muni more inviting to infrequent users, thus encouraging them to become more frequent users:

1. More, working change machines or automatic ticket vending machines.
2. A simplified Muni system map, which shows high-frequency lines and major stops only. Portland has a nice downtown PDF and the SF Transportation Authority had a good start here but it would need some work.
   
3. Real live kiosk agents at the kiosks, actually helping! Or like in other cities, actually doing something like accepting payments.
   
4. Now I'm just dreaming: how about really funding and implementing TransLink so you can get one ticket for your entire ride?