Dear SFMTA Board: Stop Trying to Score Cheap Political Points and Stay Focused on Fixing Muni Now
Tuesday San Francisco officials are likely to throw away millions that could be used to improve service on Muni, the slowest transit system in the nation.
Update: Please excuse my confusion. The Municipal Transportation Agency board took up this issue (whose members are not elected). An earlier version of this story assumed it was the Transit Authority, which is made up of the elected Board of Supervisors.
Why are they throwing away millions?
To give away free Muni passes to seniors.
As nice as that sounds, our transit system needs $10 billion of investment just to just bring our current fleet of busses and trains up to good repair (SFBG & Ed Reiskin) — and that’s not in the cards.
Underfunded for decades and lurching under the weight of a growing population and a younger populace that prefers public transit to cars (NYT), improving Muni will take disciplined focus.
Bad Policy
In a January 6 Op/Ed, the San Francisco Chronicle said, “It’s a feel-good idea that will help Muni board members earn political points and [it has] the city’s many nonprofit organizations applauding. It’s also a bad policy idea that will further erode Muni’s effectiveness — just when this growing city needs it most.”
- The free passes for seniors are expected to cost $4.5 million.
- Last year, Supervisors approved a similar program for youth that is costing the city $4.4 million.
- The mayor threw away $11 million last year when he discontinued Sunday parking meters.
- That’s TWENTY MILLION DOLLARS every year. In five years, that would total $100 million. That’s nothing more than political back scratching of Hugo Chavez proportions and it could have been used to improve Muni. Yes, a lot of vehicles and improved service could be funded with that.
Long Unmet Needs
Remember, Muni remains burdened with a multi-billion maintenance backlog and an appalling on-time performance rate, which continues “in the 60 percent range during the first three months of 2014, compared with the voter-mandated goal of 85 percent.” (Chronicle)
Props A & B, the transportation bonds passed last November, will throw a little bucket of water on Muni’s inferno of need. Together they provide a few hundred million to help make just 15 of the city’s busiest transit routes 20 percent faster and more reliable (SFBG).
At the rate we’re going, Props A & B won’t even come close to bringing Muni up to speed.
Economic Impact
And remember, San Franciscans spend so much time waiting for delayed or broken down busses and trains that it has a cumulative economic cost of $50 million annually in lost productivity according to the city’s own economist as cited in a 2013 Op-Ed by Bob Linscheid, president and CEO of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.
Housing Impact
And as rising housing costs threaten the jobs of many elected officials, it makes no sense for our Supervisors to neglect transit.
Just as subways allowed New York’s boroughs to slow the rate of housing inflation, last month the Chronicle noted how the same could apply here: “San Francisco’s troubling housing costs can be reined in if workers are convinced that attractive neighborhoods [are] served by speedy, reliable transit.”
So how will SFMTA officials vote?
In 2013, The New Yorker called Muni “a notorious mess,” while Buzzfeed proclaimed our transit system a “national embarrassment.” And what do our officials want to give to Seniors? Free access to this beleaguered system. Some gift.
It’s time that San Franciscans demand our public officials to keep their eye on the ball and create a more reliable Muni for everyone, including seniors. Contact the SFMTA Board now and quote the Chronicle’s conclusion to their Op/Ed:
Asking fewer and fewer people to pay for their rides on Muni just doesn’t add up.
Update: The SFMTA board voted unanimously approved free Muni passes for seniors:
- Tom Nolan: Yes
- Cheryl Brinkman: Yes
- Malcolm A. Heinicke: Yes
- Joél Ramos: Yes
- Cristina Rubke: Yes
- Gwyneth Borden: Yes
I don’t want to be a transit activist but my annoyance with our city’s terrible system (and even worse leadership from elected officials and the SFMTA Board) forced me to become one. I’m a member of @SFTRU, the San Francisco Transit Rider’s Union, but I do not speak on their behalf.
