Muni to Switch to All-Door Boarding on July 1
Aaron Bialick
sf.streetsblog.org
Starting July 1, feel free to board any Muni bus by the back door, as long as you pay.
The SFMTA says it plans to implement all-door boarding on the entire Muni system, expanding the existing policy from light rail vehicles (and cable cars) as a simple, low-cost way to speed up boardings and reduce fare evasion on its buses. Agency staff say
Muni would be the first transit system in North America to do so.
To make the transition, the SFMTA plans to hire fare inspectors, launch a media campaign to inform riders, and potentially install ticket machines at bus stops. SFMTA spokesperson Paul Rose said the agency has installed Clipper Card readers on back doors in preparation for the change, and more details will be presented to the agency’s Board of Directors at a later meeting.
The transition could speed up travel times substantially. Muni buses currently spend an estimated 15 to 30 percent of their time letting customers get on and off the bus. On some of the most congested lines, many passengers already board on the back, either to skip the long line or to avoid paying the fare.
An all-door boarding system, also known as proof-of-payment, decriminalizes that practice while using random fare inspections to eliminate the sense of security for fare evaders who’ve made it onto the bus, thereby encouraging them to pay.
“We want to have the right level of fare inspection so that we create an expectation for anybody riding on our system that any point, they may be asked to show proof that they’ve paid for their ride,” said SFMTA Director of Transportation Ed Reiskin at a town hall meeting this week. “We don’t want to inadvertently send the signal that Muni’s free.”
The fare evasion rate on Muni’s light rail lines, which have used random fare inspections for more than a decade, is less than half the rate on buses, according to a 2009 study by the SFMTA. On some bus lines, more than 15 percent of riders don’t pay, and that number jumps to 55 percent for people who board on the back. Overall, Muni loses an estimated $19 million to fare evasion every year.
Expanding all-door boarding was a key recommendation from SFMTA staff in the Muni Transit Effectiveness Project.
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A StreetFilms video about Muni all-door boarding from March 2010: