What's with the terrible public transit??? (San Francisco, Oakland: taxes, buses, moving)

[RVA-Jsn20]

Anyone care to explain why the public transportation in the bay area (caltrain, muni, the buses) is always late, slow, and limited? Quite frustrating if you're trying to get where you need to be and are running late. Not only this but what's with the underground muni going on the street and hitting stop lights? Never heard of such a thing.

[mayorhaggar]

Well San Francisco is the one part of CA that is very urban and dense, but it has to get funding from a large state that is mostly suburban and rural. Most of the Bay Area is very suburban and centered around cars so public transit outside of SF is even worse. San Franciscans and Californians could pay more taxes to fund public transit but Californians have always struck me as anti-taxes and I think they take one look at Muni's poor performance and say "no thanks" to paying more for it because they have no faith in Muni putting the money to good use. Muni is really bloated with overpaid management and drivers who are bleeding the system of money. And then the passengers are always trying to get on buses and trains without paying their fares, I don't get why Muni doesn't get a better system of ticketing, the CTA in Chicago uses little plastic cards for tickets and nobody tries to scam their way onto buses there.

BART is pretty good though and is a lot better than Muni. Caltrain is good and very reliable but is just inconvenient because of the station locations and train times.

Not only this but what's with the underground muni going on the street and hitting stop lights? Never heard of such a thing.

It's called light rail.

[RVA-Jsn20]

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

Well San Francisco is the one part of CA that is very urban and dense, but it has to get funding from a large state that is mostly suburban and rural. Most of the Bay Area is very suburban and centered around cars so public transit outside of SF is even worse. San Franciscans and Californians could pay more taxes to fund public transit but Californians have always struck me as anti-taxes and I think they take one look at Muni's poor performance and say "no thanks" to paying more for it because they have no faith in Muni putting the money to good use. Muni is really bloated with overpaid management and drivers who are bleeding the system of money. And then the passengers are always trying to get on buses and trains without paying their fares, I don't get why Muni doesn't get a better system of ticketing, the CTA in Chicago uses little plastic cards for tickets and nobody tries to scam their way onto buses there.

BART is pretty good though and is a lot better than Muni. Caltrain is good and very reliable but is just inconvenient because of the station locations and train times.

Not only this but what's with the underground muni going on the street and hitting stop lights? Never heard of such a thing.

It's called light rail.

Unfortunate that SF doesn't have a subway system. And yes I know what you mean about people just hopping on the muni for free, I've been taking advantage of that myself - I agree something needs to be done.

[futureSDresident]

The problem is that the freeway system also has huge flaws and it's impossible to find parking spots in SF so there's no decent alternative.

[cream_hustler]

Bus rides in Oakland can be hazardous to one's health


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JRvW27Zc1Y

[Mr. Fantastic]

I think the public transit is actually decent in the Bay Area.

Compared to New York, Tokyo, and Berlin, yeah it's not quite up to par, but the S.F Bay Area as a whole covers a much larger area. BART can pretty much take you all around the Bay for less than $15, and has an on-time rate of 89%. That's nothing to scoff at.

[gone down south]

The Bay Area is dependant on tech money to keep everything moving, and we've had 2 huge crashes in that market in the decade or so (dot.com bust in 2001, and the current recession) so there's no money to fix anything.

[mayorhaggar]

Originally Posted by RVA-Jsn20

Unfortunate that SF doesn't have a subway system. And yes I know what you mean about people just hopping on the muni for free, I've been taking advantage of that myself - I agree something needs to be done.

Soooooooo...you complain that Muni sucks then say you don't pay for your ticket? This is why Muni sucks, it's in a death spiral caught between cheap commuters and taxpayers and greedy bus drivers. I pay $60 a month for my Fast Pass so that deadbeats can ride free.

[RVA-Jsn20]

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

Soooooooo...you complain that Muni sucks then say you don't pay for your ticket? This is why Muni sucks, it's in a death spiral caught between cheap commuters and taxpayers and greedy bus drivers. I pay $60 a month for my Fast Pass so that deadbeats can ride free.

Hey it's your system. I'm just visiting

[Mr. Fantastic]

It's easy for a criminal to complain, they don't contribute to the solution, only to the problem.