I cannot believe that there is a group of MUNI riders that think the way to fix the funding gap in public transit by having the parking meters work on Sunday.  Greedy bastards – they think that just because many of them do not use cars – screw the car people – let them pay, pay and pay some more.  No day of rest.  Perhaps they hate Christians too.  Maybe they will try to find some way to get the people going to Church on Sunday to pay for parking when they park in the street.  There is a reason for a day of rest once every week – and the meters need a rest too.  And drivers need at least one day free of the dammed meters that seem to always take more and give less.   I cannot believe the good feeling I had going to Sloat Garden Center today in the Richmond – Parking without emptying my wallet of it’s change – a chance to leisurely buy plants.   I am sure that Sloat Garden Center benefited too – I probably purchased a few more plants not having to worry that I had to get back to the meter of face some huge fine.  I really think it is the merchants that would suffer it they went to 24 hour meters like some in the anti car crowd would like.  I am sick of this group that always wants someone else to pay.  Why don’t they go after the handicapped parking racket where a hell of a lot able bodied people get their doctor to proscribe free parking.  I know that this is state law – but think they should put their energies there rather than going after the only day that we get to enjoy free parking – I say keep the Sabbath holy and free of parking goons. 

Got a very nice phone call yesterday from someone at the MTA.  They too are concerned with the way the fare inspectors are coming across.  They acknowledged that it was not appropriate for one of the fare inspector supervisors (the big guy with the shaved head) to photograph me while I was photographing the scene.  They do have some legitimate concerns about photography being used to scout out potential terrorist targets.  The MTA representative said that a more appropriate response would be to talk to me to get a sense of why I might be taking pictures.  There still seems to be some ambiguity about photography on MUNI – there are no posted signs and MUNI is a public place.  I can certainly understand that film crews with large cameras can be disruptive to the smooth functioning of the system – but certainly there is a valid journalistic interest in covering issues around MUNI.  I don’t think that any of the photos I took would be of aid to someone trying to harm the system – but I will certainly try to be more sensitive to this issue in the future.  

Update today – just got a call from a very helpful MTA employee clarifying the photo policy on MUNI directing me to their photo guidelines at:

http://www.sfmta.com/cms/rhome/photoguide.htm

Apparently photography is permitted subject to some very reasonable guidelines. This information perhaps should be included in the training of fare inspectors.  

Google – you are herby commanded to take charge of the Information Technology systems at MUNI.  You have a lot of talented people looking for cool stuff to do – and MUNI needs your help.  MUNI management is completely dysfunctional and all they can think about is how to issue multimillion dollar contacts to their buddies (and later get jobs with them).  Emilio Cruz is Exhibit A and we are sure there are others.  Google – you already run one of the most elegant transit systems in the city with you black stretch busses – the only problem is that it is only for your employees – you need to do it for all citizens of San Francisco.  And how is the wireless project in the city going?  Has city government screwed this up too.  I would like a report back within 60 days.  I also think that you should consider building a tall and distinctive headquarters in the city so that your cool employees that like to live in the city do not have to commute all the way down the peninsula – that is the ultimate in reducing Co2 emissions – live near where you work and if you are really serious about doing good you would give it some thought.

Enough for now,

Your humble Emperor

It’s about time that we riders consider tipping MUNI drivers for great service.   We think nothing of tipping waiters – in fact they almost expect it.  But I think it would do wonders for a driver’s moral to get a $20 bill from a rider who got consistently  got good service on a particular line.  Perhaps it is already happening and I don’t know about it but my sense is that many MUNI drivers don’t feel that good service is appreciated.  We certainly would not like to see it get out of hand where drivers expected tips – but my sense is that we are now far from that point now.  Then there is really crappy service like I saw the other night on my ride on the N-Judah downtown.  I was in the second car at the  Noe stop and what I think was an inspector asking a women with a bicycle to leave the train. Perhaps it could have been worse and she was issued a $60 ticket – but the car was nearly empty and she was not bothering anyone.  In my idea of an ideal world no one would ever think of asking her to leave.  Seems like rules trump common sense.  Makes me wonder if anyone in management of MUNI has any brains at all – and yet we the citizens of the city of San Francisco are paying the manager of MUNI $200,000+ salary for such poor management.  Just tried to use google to find what the top guy at MUNI makes and I got this: …. “Turns out that two companies that employ former Muni managers, including former General Manager Emilio Cruz and former SFMTA Director Stuart Sunshine, are set to make millions on contracts related to the construction of the Central Subway.” 

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/politics/Muni-Rider-Protest-Outmatched-by-Drivers-jw-86035022.html

Enough to make one mad as hell.  Smells like Gavin Newsom hand is in on this somewhere.

We need to remember what the goal is.  My sense is that the best we can hope for is a cleaner, safer system that has reasonably quick service at a reasonable price that serves most of the people in the city.  We need to realize that not everyone is going to be served optimally. 

Where to start.  Two major priorities that came out of the meeting on Saturday for me were the need for better management/driver relations and the need for a realistic and stable funding source.  I know that there are a number of people looking at the funding issue.  I would love to find someone who knows many gallons of gas are sold in the city each year.  Just as a rough guess if there are 200,000 cars in the city consuming say 30 gallons per month – this is 72 millions of gas per year.  A 25 cent per gallon gas tax would bring in 18 million dollars per year.  If the city gas consumption is higher than this then even more money could be collected.  The bottom line is that it is important for all San Franciscans benefit from more people in the city using MUNI and this message needs to be stressed. 

 For the other issue of management/driver relations there were suggestions to consideration be given to management structures that use more of a European style of shared board participation between management and workers.   How are transit systems managed in Europe or other countries?  Where does MUNI fit in?  What is the ratio between the highest paid MUNI employee and the starting salary for drivers? 

It is perhaps useful to consider why other efforts to fix MUNI have largely failed.  I few years ago I was involved in the activities of Rescue MUNI but drifted away due to what I felt was an flawed analysys of what was wrong.  I still believe that whatever is done needs the full support and confidence of the drivers.  The drivers spend 8 hours per day actually delivering the service.  I believe that they know more than I ever will about what is going on in the system and that properly empowered they would bust there asses to be part of a great system that they would be proud to be a part of.  I feel a lot of confidence in the current group of people that put on last Saturday’s meeting – but urge that every effort be made to insure that drivers are represented in all advocacy activities.

I don’t really know how MUNI is managed internally – I suspect it is a older fashion top down hierarchical system.  New information technologies could have the effect of making a better run system.  Why not explore the idea of interesting  a company like Google to use San Francisco as a test bed for how transit could be run differently in the 21^st century.

A handout generated for the March 6 MUNI meeting at the Woman's building in San Francisco.

It’s about time something gets done.  The current management plan of raising fares and decreasing service is simply not sustainable.  It might work for one or two years – but what about 10 years?  What is the goal here?  I say we need an inexpensive public transit that real people can afford (The $1 fare was a lot better for encouraging transit use than the current $2 fare).  If current management has their way the fare will be $5 and there will be only 2 bus lines operating from 6 to 12pm.  There is simply no alternative to dealing with costs.  Muni simply needs to operate more efficiently.   I know that there are a lot of good drivers out there who do their job conscientiously and certainly feel underappreciated – but the bottom line is that the city cannot continue to pay premium wages.  The first suggestion is to get wages more in line with market conditions.  I know that there will be a lot of screaming and complaints about San Francisco being an expensive place to live – which is true but we really need to examine whether the current wage structure is completive or are MUNI employees being paid over market rates.   My guess is that if carefully examined (including pension and medical benefits) one would find that MUNI pays significantly more that would be required to hire and train a dedicated workforce.  I understand that no one wants to have their wages or benefits cut so what could be done for MUNI employees – especially those that deal with the public every day.  I say we need to appreciate the ones that are doing a great job.  I am sure that it is very stressful to drive a giant bus every day through the streets of San Francisco – and most of us could not or would not want to do this job. 

The second area that I would cut is some of the staff.  I have to believe that there is 5 percent of the MUNI staff that if they were fired tomorrow the system would actually work better.  I think that most MUNI employees know this and know exactly those that should be gone.  The fundamental problem is union rules that make it nearly impossible to fire people for incompetence.   Many private companies even have a policy of terminating a percentage of their lower performing employees every year as a way of keeping the company healthy and competitive.  Why not do this with MUNI?  The only difference I would propose is that some way be found for the majority of the employees to make the decision about who really needs to go – and this should include management too as I am sure there is a lot of dead wood there too. 

I know that one big stumbling block is the union.  But the employees own the union and if enough of the good employees (I suspect most are) realize that their jobs are not really secure if MUNI continues on it’s downward spiral.  This would be neither good for San Francisco nor good for the current workforce.  So the bottom line is get salaries fair and competitive (what is the saving here?) and get rid of the dead wood.  It’s not even good for the low performing employees who probably know that they are a drain on the system and should really be doing something else that they are competent at and perhaps would enjoy more.  The only other idea I have to give the MUNI employees a fixed amount of money each year to run the system and see what they do with it.  My guess is that it would work better than the current system.

Fix the Muni

www.zpub.com/fixmuni