SFTRU: All-door boarding coming to Muni this July


Photo by freya.gefn

The long-talked-about topic of allowing back-door boarding on Muni buses will become reality as soon as this summer, according to a post on SF Transit Rider Union‘s website.

The San Francisco Transit Riders Union is pleased to announce that Muni will expand all-door boarding to buses on July 1, 2012. SFTRU launched its all-door boarding campaign in August 2011 and has advocated the proposal at agency board meetings, in the media, and when speaking with riders.

“SFTRU recognized that all-door boarding will create faster trips for riders, improve reliability, increase fare compliance, and save the agency money,” said Robert Boden, SFTRU board member. “We are pleased that Muni is listening to riders.”

The greatest benefit to Muni riders will be shortened travel times, especially given Muni’s average speed of 8 miles per hour.

We reported on all-door boarding for Muni last in August. Click here to read the rest of SFTRU’s post.

Are you pleased with this decision? Pissed? Share your thoughts in comments, please.

13 comments

  • Jerold

    Just to reconfirm, Director of Transportation Ed Reiskin did say this at Wednesday’s budget town hall meeting. Part of the proposed budget includes hiring more fare inspectors to prepare for all-door boarding.

  • Mark Dreger via Facebook

    The cost savings of Muni running faster far outweigh any loss in fare revenue. Time (or speed) is money.

  • Aaron Bialick via Facebook

    Mark But all-door boarding should reduce fare evasion assuming they re-disperse fare inspectors properly. LRVs have half the system-wide evasion rate since with PoP, you can never be sure you’re home free.

  • Mark Dreger via Facebook

    Very true, but I wouldn’t count on there being the same concentration of fare inspectors as in the Metro. They’ll have to move them around a lot. Do you know if the SFMTA has plans for hiring more inspectors before then?

  • Aaron Bialick via Facebook

    Yes, they do. I’m investigating how much right now…

  • Mark Dreger via Facebook

    Well that’s great news! Explains the July date.

  • This has been talked about for years, and while it seemed so obvious and simple it never seemed to happen. Glad to see Muni is making some progress in the forward direction!

  • Kristin

    Hooray! Now when will the N stops be consolidated?

    Sincerely,
    Waiting for a faster ride to the Sunset

  • Paul J. Lucas

    The press release doesn’t specifically say whether all-door boarding will be allowed on the historic streetcars of the F-line (which is currently is not). Does anybody know?

    • Hi Paul,

      It’s not exactly explicit, but Streetsblog SF‘s post about all-door boarding does say “The SFMTA says it plans to implement all-door boarding on the entire Muni system …”

      I take that to mean streetcars as well. We’ll try to confirm.

  • Is that a good idea? When that plan goes into effect, the rate of people looking for a free ride will go up. This will also be true for those who “under” pay as well. Will there be more fare inforcement?

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