Photo by Troy Holden
Beth is surely onto something here. Muni buses have the readers in the back, but the agency requires us to board buses in the front (Muni Metro LRVs and F-Market streetcars are different). We called to get a better idea of when, if ever, Muni will do the smart thing and enact back-door boarding. We’ll let you know what they say. Meantime, here’s Beth’s diary …
My family and I visited Zurich not that long ago, where I learned quite a bit about things that make public transit work well, one of which is letting people board at the back or the front, whichever’s quicker. This works well there because a) they pay before they board, and b) the fine for not having your proof of payment on you is something upwards of $300. So there aren’t a lot of fare evaders.
Today, I boarded a 14 going north on Mission. I started to get on at the back doors and a fare inspector waved me to the front. I showed him my Translink card and he shook his head, saying no, I can’t board in the back. Clearly he wasn’t getting the picture.
I said, “I can tag in right there. It’ll be a lot quicker.” I pointed at the transponder.
It was like a light bulb went on over his head. He nodded and let me get on.
Really, I shouldn’t have to explain to a Muni employee how this works. Right?
I get that Muni has problems with fare evasion. If you’re not going to encourage Translink users — which is going to be all of us, pretty soon — to use the transponders at the back of the bus, then why are they even there? Card users could board at the back while cash fares could board at the front. It would be SO much quicker. On-time rates would improve.
Oh well. It’s rare that there’s a fare inspector on the bus, so I’ll keep tagging in at the back whenever I can.
When MTC and SFMTA planned the rollout of Clipper on the Muni fleet, SFMTA wanted the flexibility to adopt a policy in the future where customers could board at the rear doors. So, the readers are located at the rear doors to provide SFMTA with the flexibility to change its rear-door boarding policy in the future. At present, SFMTA’s official policy is front door boarding only.
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You’re forgetting too that the Swiss are generally a law abiding lot. Can you imagine if there were even more MUNI fare inspectors writing out US$300 tickets?
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Thanks for the info about back door boarding with Clipper. I just got my Clipper card and wondered about that back door thing, thinking that Muni was being smart and allowing prepaids to get on quickly. Ha ha.
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Kinda. Maybe. Sometimes.
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Im from Zurich and the rule there is first offence 80$ second 120$ third 150$ by the fourth you will be criminaly charged and your name remains black listed for 2 years. Yes there we are permitted to board the back but there are allot more undercover inspectors that as soon as the doors close pop out of the crowd and rudely look for people with no ticket because they need their daily total of offences.. so i dont know whats better.. fast pass was good, just show it and done… rip fast pass..
what they should copy from the swiss is a year round pass so you dont need to run around to get one every month..
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