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“This is my no. 1 complaint about Muni. They really, really need to consolidate stops. I understand the tradeoff — that I might have to walk a block farther to get to my stop. But I will most definitely trade that for a faster ride.”
– megan allison In response to "Moralism vs. Utopianism--of Red Lights, Helmets, Bike Lanes and..."
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by Matthew Roth
The idea that the speed and free-flow of cars is the proxy that is being used across the state of California to measure whether a project is [environmentally] impactful is in the long run undermining the very quality of life [we] are working to protect. Continue reading »
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mikesonn
You don't see the sizzle cause it's never in the city.
I do like the "electric traffic jam" quote. Only part of the problem with cars is the fact they pollute. Another part is that one person (sometimes up to 4 or 5!) take up so much road space. You can fit 15-30 cars' worth of people in a bus and take up fraction of the road space hence more human throughput.
in response to Gav For Guv Short On Transportation Essentials
Sasha
I dream of the day when we're a POP-only system (yes to standardizing on the terms "ticket" and "pass"!) and all of the back doors open automatically at every stop, because the drivers are no longer required to prevent people from boarding through them!
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
John Murphy
I don't see the sizzle either...
in response to Gav For Guv Short On Transportation Essentials
rzu
Gav is short on a lot of essentials. His campaign slogan should be: "All sizzle, no steak!"
in response to Gav For Guv Short On Transportation Essentials
eddo
Gavin is claiming "innovative technology" like TransLink? TransLink's been planned for longer than Gavin was even up on the Board of Supervisors and is actually being provided by MTC, which is under ABAG. Also, TransLink has been on Golden Gate Transit and AC Transit for a while, which are under no possible jurisdiction of Gavin Newsom.
Gavin is exactly like Arnold. He talks the green talk but can't even walk the green walk in perhaps the easiest place in the world to do it.
in response to Gav For Guv Short On Transportation Essentials
david vartanoff
@Mark. Actually Muni COULD have spec'd the doors pretty much any way they wanted. The prime vendor responds to specs from Muni, they can for instance insist on double stream doors which many others do not. No, probably in this stolen funding crisis we can't afford to correct this particular mistake, BUT system standards make riding better.
Other than bus geeks, who wants to have to know the various models?
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
Mark Ballew
I don't think Muni should worry about the touch bars, patrons simply need to be more patient when waiting for the doors to open. We don't need to slice out another $1M out of the $129M deficit to fix something as simple as exit bars. Make some new stickers to re-explain how to use the door and that's that.
Yes, Muni has a collection of door opening technology, but not all the buses were bought at the same time and from the same vendor since bus companies tend to turn over. It's silly to waste money when there is a fleet of almost 1000 buses and trains that all need regular maintenance.
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
Eric
VTA buses had this same problem years ago. Funny how the problem moved north with no resolution.
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
theo
I don't know whether the French have put more time and effort into human factors, ergonomic or user experience research on automated systems, or whether there just happens to be more attention to the "feel" of such systems due to cultural influences.
As a gross overgeneralization, a primary characteristic of French engineering is their propensity for refining and polishing. Less innovative than American engineering, less complex than Japanese engineering.
It's like the Millau viaduct vs. the Bay Bridge.
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
Josh
@marcos, this is my point. Thanks for articulating it so well in that last paragraph
@m, I think we agree - especially after reading your last post. I get a little scared, however, when I hear proposals to increase service by reducing what I see as a truly valuable aspect of our current service. I agree that the underserved niche in Muni's network is rapid crosstown service. My preferred solution, however, would not be to remove bus stops, but to add new rapid lines and routes to our existing service.
in response to Streetfilms: L.A.’s Orange Line Bus Rapid Transit (plus bike path!)
Alex
I was caught by this too. I can't believe the UI design of these doors. When did it become acceptable to typeset the English language vertically? What's with the bizarre allcaps font? It's the same yellow as the bars, so easily tuned out as background foo. And how hard would it be to make the doors open when the bus is stopped and someone's shoving on them?
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
Greg
another endless spiral of bs thanks to poor interface design. I was one of the "punch the door" people until someone showed me that all I had to do was put my hand on the door and voila! it opened fine.
you don't even need to touch the doors, just put your hand where it's supposed to go. Of course the stupid stickers don't make that clear and no one tells you that, so user interface FAIL.
but another lesson - saying "low floor low floor" is not a panacea for transit ills. and if you can show me a low floor train car that can handle SF's bumpy roads (sorry the N Judah does not ride on a flat surface most of the time) well then let's get those and sell these Bredas to China or something.
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
Jane H.
I don't know, I've never had any problem opening those doors. I give them a light touch, and they open easily most of the time for me. I think people just need to read the instructions/pay more attention.
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
Diane
I always thought that the low-floor buses were designed for better accessibility by the handicapped. After back surgery, I still ended up exiting through the front door because the driver rarely pulls the rear end close enough to the curb to make it easy to exit without stepping down. I wonder if someone in a wheelchair would have difficulty triggering the rear door without having to lean uncomfortably far forward, or if the chair, pulled close enough, would activate the signal.
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
Jay
I apologize about the link, just copy and paste it.
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
Jay
- Trolleys/Nabi Diesels/Most Vintage Streetcars: Step down
- Neoplan Diesels: Push the bar
- Orion Hybrids: Place your arm in front and across the door. You don't have to touch anything, but place your arm close enough so the sensor can see you. If you start pushing the door and constantly moving your hand/arm back and forth, the sensor will not detect you properly.
- Breda LRV: Check whether there is a green or red light on a column immediately to your left or right. Also, look above the doors to see whether they are out of service/order (because the drivers may forget to place a sticker on the doors' window).
FYI, the difference between the Nabi (left) and Neoplan (right) diesels can be seen here: http://image44.webshots.com/45/2/7/5/388620705sXrRhn_ph.jpg
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
LibertyHiller
No, redseca, a spreadsheet for iPhone is NOT necessary for the lines that aren't using the hybrids; all you have to do is pay attention. If it's a diesel bus, you step down and if it's a trolley coach, you push the bar.
Muni should standardize on push bars for all bus doors and be done with it. It's simple, obvious, and provides user feedback.
Of course, there's not much you can do about the drivers...
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
C.
Several years ago, I spent lots of time in France, including public facilities (airports, train and bus stations, bathrooms, public buildings, etc.) that have automated door-opening systems or other automatically activated systems (e.g. water faucets).
I was amazed at the timing and smoothness of the operation of these systems. I began to take informal note of them, and found them much smoother and better timed than American or English systems.
I don't know whether the French have put more time and effort into human factors, ergonomic or user experience research on automated systems, or whether there just happens to be more attention to the "feel" of such systems due to cultural influences.
But it might be worth checking out whether there are now automated door-opening systems or studies that might be applied to Muni...
Thanks for all your good work!!!
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
redseca2
I am not very sqeemish, but riding MUNI to work everyday, one of my goals is always to touch as FEW things as possible.
So any system that make me touch the same spot everyone else touches is FAIL.
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
Jeffrey W. Baker
Jamison: Now that I have a TransLink card I'm even more confused. Do I need to tag out on Muni (answer: no, but how can you tell) and do I need to take a transfer (answer: no idea)?
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
KK
I'm fine if they keep Market east of Powell exactly as it is and instead did something to develop the shithole that is Market from Powell to Van Ness.
in response to Streetfilm: Making a Better Market Street
redseca2
Another common problem is that bus lines that I ride every day include a complete collection demonstrating a comprehensive history of door opening technology.
Each day MUNI sends me a random mix of touch bar buses, STEP DOWN! buses, the new CLASS sensor buses and doors that only open at the whim of the driver. I shiver in anticipation!
What we need is a spreadsheet crosslisting bus numbers with exit door technology downloadable to Iphones!
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
Whole Wheat Toast
Are they going to be running the E-Line again this sunday for Sunday Streets????
in response to Bayview Merchants Hopeful Sunday Streets Will Bring Business
Jamison Wieser
Jeffrey, the doors on the Muni Metro Breda trains are called "plug doors" because they first have to move outward from the the train before they can slide open. That alone makes them slower, more complex, but they also are mounted on a screw mechanism at the top, which means they're hanging and unless the train is level the weight of the door is torquing that screw at the top. Someone once told me the doors would not be a problem if we were a flat city.
Seth, before even dealing with the overly complex fare regulations I think they need to take a step back and look at the terminology used for the fares themselves. Passes, passports, fares, transfers, fare receipts (the last two sound optional if I don't need a receipt and I'm not going to transfer to another line) and then there's the whole proof of payment which just seems overly wordy, indirect especially when it gets shortened to POP with the meaningless triangle (and I say meaningless because there's no widely adopted standard POP icon, caltrain uses a variation on their logo)
I'd like to see it all simplified down to "ticket" (the one-way, or rather 90 minute pass) and "pass" (used for any one-day, multi-day or monthly pass) then ditch all the POP crap and make signs that simply read something along the lines "You must have a valid ticket or pass to ride Muni".
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
DaveO
From the linked article on Muni's serice reports:
"[Of] the 1,600 operators on the roster, 371 -- or 23 percent -- were not available to work. The reasons: 138 called in sick; 72 were on vacation; 96 were on unplanned leave [...] and 65 were out for other reasons."
So on a single random day, more than 8.5% of scheduled workers called in sick? I'm not even counting the "unplanned leave" and "other reasons" categories. How on earth is that possible?
If full time employees call in sick 8.5% of the time, that amounts to about 22 days of sick time a year. Preposterous.
in response to Today's Headlines
Kevin
I agree with those spotting a bigger problem here...Why do our ferries require bike riders to off board by walking up a precarious stairway, carrying their bikes? They must be taking after BART. In the Pugent Sound area, cyclists line up, take off in droves, and are nearly home by the time cars and regular passengers get off the boat.
in response to Sausalito Bike Tourists a Boon, Not a "Plague of Locusts"
theo
There's another problem with the sign itself -- the sign is hard to read, vertically printed, low contrast, in an ugly and unreadable font. These specific issues could be fixed pretty cheaply.
The bigger problem is, the profusion of bad signage on Muni teaches most passengers to ignore all signs. The most egregious examples:
"Information gladly given, but safety requires avoiding unnecessary conversation" -- so wordy and passive it made it onto t-shirts
"STOP: All passengers must pay at first car etc. etc." right next to, and equally important with the directive "STOP: Assault on a Muni driver is punishable by 5 years in prison"
Lousy Spanish translations. I'm not at all fluent and they even offend me. http://www.latin-know.com/2006/02/27/local-language-flubs-muni-massacres-spanish/
Can we have a TEP for Muni signage? The recent changes to the Market St. subway stations show they can do it well when they try.
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
Pat
Intersection monitor this Sunday @ Jefferson & Mason! I am going to monitor so hard
in response to Bayview Merchants Hopeful Sunday Streets Will Bring Business
theo
Every Muni door design except for the push bars is fundamentally flawed.
We expect doors to push open. Anything else requires experience, and in a major tourist city there will always be large numbers of clueless tourists.
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
marcos
Since the DPT IS currently under the MTA's control, and the DPT does not keep the streets clear for transit, how do you figure that insulating the Traffic Company from the City's most responsive policy makers, the Board of Supervisors, will get a recalcitrant SFPD and a disinterested MTA to do the job.
It seems like we're rewarding failure several times over with this one, "hoping for the thing we wish to want."
-marc
in response to MTA To Get Greater Management Role Over SFPD's Traffic Company
Sasha
I live on the 35 and have been frustrated by these doors for a year. Recently I did some detective work via Google and learned about the door opening mechanism on these buses. The yellow sticker is somewhat misleading, because the door does not respond to touch or pressure. Each door has a pair of sensors right near where they meet, one up high and one near the floor. When the bus is loading/unloading and something (like a hand) comes between these sensors, they signal the doors to open. The process takes up to 1.5 seconds. I think the lag is really killing the design: for months I'd touch the door, nothing would happen immediately, and I'd move my hand, cancelling the initial process of opening the door and restarting the clock.
I think this is ripe for a viral campaign by MUNI. Bus riders help each other out, and if MUNI sent some folks out on these lines to train folks about how to open the doors - and maybe even explain how they work - riders would tell other riders, and the info would spread. Since the system is complicated enough and hard enough to understand that I had to spend an hour researching online to unearth an explanation, so MUNI's going to have to invest some resources in getting the word out.
And for what it's worth, I read a blog where a rider in another city noted that the easiest way he'd found to open the door was to hold a book parallel to the floor and place the spine against the yellow strip. It reliably interrupts the beam and triggers the door to open. Just keep it there for 1.5 seconds!
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
Kristine Enea
To those who support this idea - please consider how much it would further isolate the residents of the southeast sector. We're out in the boonies with few amenities. We do *not* need more housing out here. All we have is housing. If you tell me you want to tear down 280 so you can build grocery stores, bookstores, movie theaters, museums and a symphony hall, maybe I'll reconsider, but for now, I say we need 280. Please don't tell me that the Third Street Light Rail solves all our transit problems. It doesn't. It's slow, and for many of us, too far away to be useful. Besides, what was wrong with the 15 bus? Please, please, focus on making public transit more efficient, connected and convenient before causing more congestion for cars. People out here drive cars because there is no realistic alternative. We need 280! Long live 280!
in response to Mayor Newsom, Caltrans Announce Plans to Remove Portions of I-280
taomom
Wow. So this is news to me. I thought you just pushed on the doors to get them to open. (Anywhere on the door, not necessarily the yellow strip.) And yet when I look at the picture, it clearly says "touch here to open." Why did this never register with me? I think it's because 1) I generally have figured out what to do on Muni by watching other passengers. If other passengers push on the door and it works, that's what I'll tend to do. 2) When I go to exit, I usually have only a brief few seconds to crowd my way towards the door, step down and step out. Where am I looking? Largely at the stairs so I don't trip and kill myself. My attention is down, not horizontal, which is why I think I've not noticed the yellow strips. However, if there was a simple, readable sign where they used to put interior bus ads (where did those ads go, anyway?) I think I would read it just out of boredom sometime during the ride. I would also be likely to read info if it were posted at the bus stops themselves. Something like "Helpful info for Muni passengers," or some such thing. I agree that simple, visual instructions are best.
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
Seth Andrzejewski
I think it's kind of like the Jeopardy buzzers, if you touch them before the driver opens the doors, you're locked out.
There is a great need to evaluate the user experience of transit. For heavily used systems like Muni, precious seconds count as they're compounded over thousands of riders, stops, and runs per day.
One related issue is the ease for new riders to understand the fare system, transfer policy, and regulations. Each Muni vehicle is furnished with paragraphs of text on stickers and advertisements explaining these things in 3 languages. Most of it can be communicated visually (as is commonly done elsewhere in the world). I know the F-line on a summer Saturday or Sunday suffers greatly when international visitors have difficulty figuring out what they're supposed to do.
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
Barbera
I live and work near Main Post.
The proposed plans to develop Main Post (CAMP, Movie Theater, Lodge,
Café, Visitors Center) are destructive to both the park, open-space conservation/restoration, neighborhood planning & historical integrity.
Having gone to many of the meetings over the past year, it is apparent the current members of the Presidio Trust are not & have not been acting on behalf of the park nor the majority of its neighborhoods. The last meeting was a travesty given that not only was the meeting planned when 50+% of the affected neighborhoods were out of town on Spring break (including Bob Burke who is a trust member) but also a large group of people, that were clearly either paid or work for one of the development constituencies, wasted everyone’s time giving repetitive remarks – they were not concerned, informed citizens.
The drawings are misleading - the buildings w/ their walk-ways are going to translate into a dense urban feeling.
Where are all the cars going?
The Trust's traffic solutions were undermined by Muni's recent cancellation of the primary feeder bus routes so the primary access is going to be cars.
Presidio Executive Director,Craig Middleton's assertion the development will only increase traffic by 4% is insulting to anyone who is has ½ a brain and makes no sense when compared to the other projections - such as the development is expected to more than triple the number of annual visitors to Main Post. How do you get a 300% increase in visitors to a small area but only a 4% increase in traffic?
I go to the Presidio Post office every day - currently the congestion of cars, buses, bikers, dogs and pedestrians can be daunting.
The Trust’s solution for dealing with the traffic has been to put lights down Presidio & Arguello Avenues and sync them to Bush Street/Fulton St's respectively. I say why not re-open the Presidio/Broadway gate (@ the Lyon Street Steps) since this is a much more direct (about 1/2 the distance) and safer route (not as many pedestrians and only 10% number of garages opening onto Broadway) to a major thoroughfare (Divisidero). Of course I know the answer…but the answer is evidence of cronyism and political self dealing.
There are numerous other reasons to oppose this development as I am sure you are aware. What about the noise? The wildlife?
In closing – If the development must go in the Presidio, please locate the plan to Fort Scott which is lying fallow right now and has thousands of square feet of empty buildings (other than a few offices and kids playing fields which could be moved to Main Post). Fort Scott is a majestic site with great views; it is conveniently located off the Golden Gate Bridge and would not have the impact on so many dense residential neighborhoods. One could route traffic down 19th Ave, Doyle Drive-Lombard or across the bridge. And it is far enough from neighborhoods to not have an adverse affect on them… Fort Scott is “on the edge” like the Metropolitan Museum in Central Park/NYC.
There is a meeting tomorrow night – all elected officials should attend and openly explain his/her position on this highly charged issue.
Thank you.
in response to Enviro, Preservation Concerns Drive Opposition to Presidio Main Post Plans
Brian
Our crew made a point of eating lunch in the Bayview during both the Sunday Streets events last year. All of the shops that were open seemed to be doing good business.
We hope everyone plans on spending a little money there again this year.
Happy families on bikes and skates = customers.
in response to Bayview Merchants Hopeful Sunday Streets Will Bring Business
the greasy bear
As of 4/21/09, Howard Street's bike lane is still treacherous--as a direct result of this abominable "repaving."
Thousands of feet of lane striping disappeared, so motorists now drive farther into cyclists' right of way than they did with painted lines.
The new pavement for motorists is nice, but for cyclists it is dangerously unpredictable--rough, uneven, pockmarked and littered with pebbles and asphalt chunks.
Even Market Street is a safer and smoother bike route now, and that's saying something.
in response to Eyes on the Street: When Repaving Becomes a Hazard
Jeffrey W. Baker
I believe the headline should be "Muni Resumes Posting Daily Service Reports." From 2002 to 2006 you could download Muni's daily operating report from Rescue Muni at this URL (which no longer works):
http://www.rescuemuni.org/dailyops/
For example, here is the report from March 2, 2006 in PDF format. It's only been over the past couple of years that these reports were not available.
in response to Today's Headlines
Jeffrey W. Baker
Door technology seems to have been on a downward spiral for decades. The doors on the PCC work well and quickly. The doors on NYC Subway's ancient Kawasaki cars also work well. But Muni's newish Breda cars have slow, unreliable doors, and the new hybrid buses have doors that don't even open.
Can't engineers learn from the past?
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
John Murphy
David - MUNI deploys loaders to Caltrain... and boy are they needed.
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
Jamison Wieser
I'm with Rick, the touch mechanism is fundamentally flawed. The touch sensitive area is not shape or designed in a way that makes it look like you should press on it. It should probably be a hand sized pad about the same height as a door nob if you wanted to get people to notice it, but it's not, it's a narrow vertical strip that looks like it was added in at the last minuted where there was some leftover space. I'm guessing that's the case, because for all the million upon millions spent on transit, there's almost no attention paid to how riders will interact with the system. Most of the time that job is left up to the amateurs who make signs like "this is not BART" or in this case it's a yellow and red warning sign that looks like it was designed to tell people not to touch the door.
If you want to communicate to a rider that they should touch the strip, they should not use the same symbol we've been raised to learn means don't walk, stop, stay away, do not touch.
The touch sensitive strip is not the only mechanism people have trouble with. Stepping down to open the doors also causes confusion as does the touch bar on the Muni Metro Breda trains which is not on the door itself. On Muni Metro, the bar is actually the railing on the side of the steps and the sign explaining this is on the side as well, not the door pointing over to the railing on the side.
I suspect the reason why the bar on the door works best is because that's how a door works: there's a nob, handle, lever or bar at one end that swings it on the hinges at the other. As soon as you change that, you've broken how a door works. When doors don't have some obvious way to open them, they're usually automatic doors like you find at a mall, an office building, or BART and that's not the case either.
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
Rick
I know how the doors work and have even tried on occasion to explain it to my fellow 48 and 35 riders, but sometimes touching the "touch here" strips just doesn't do anything, and you have to try again. Many people who do read the "touch here" still don't know to wait the second or two it takes for the doors to recognize them and open. I've even had people reach over my shoulder and push on the doors from behind me because they thought I was doing it wrong.
The worst case is when someone forces themselves through the closed doors. They inevitably throw an angry glance toward the driver as soon as they're outside. As if a driver's job wasn't hard enough.
That said, I don't think it's a matter of clearer instruction. The mechanism just sucks. I'm not sure recommendation #1 will be much help. Just replace the things with touch bars that everyone already knows how to use.
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
david vartanoff
good on you and Tom! The rear door designs seem to be changed every so often on a whim. Worse yet, in AC Transit's recent purchases, the "plug" door mechanism wastes space in the bus body at no gain in customer utility. In AC's case, the slow opening doors can be remotely operated by drivers, BUT agency rules outlaw this rider friendly feature. In a recent thread on A Better Oakland I pointed out that I can exit the front door and be walking away before the rear door opens.
As a further point, apparently Cal students did a "dwell" survey showing that paying cash fares and 'dip swipe' fare cards are the slowest while RFID tagging is almost as fast as 'flash' passes and transfers. Muni's on again, off again rear door policies evolved because single entry door pay fare to driver is simply too slow for any well used transit system. Years ago, Muni deployed 'loaders' to collect fares, issue transfers at high use stops such as Glen Park during evening rush. Smart policy, lost in a decade plus of financial constraints.
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
Junior
Shifting traffic management functions from the SFPD over to MTA (and its predecessors) has been a long battle over the past several decades. It sounds like we are almost there, with the Safe Path of Travel and late night enforcement duties now rightfully under MTA's jurisdiction. MTA can perform these functions with enthusiasm, and more efficiently (i.e. cheaper overtime). I believe the last holdout is construction parking permits, which will be the most difficult to pry from SFPD's paws because those permit$ are a real racket!
Agreed, just because the traffic division is now under MTA's "control" does not mean we will see cops on buses or actual enforcement of transit lanes...but it might!
in response to MTA To Get Greater Management Role Over SFPD's Traffic Company
mikesonn
Marc,
He's not around enough to be recalled.
in response to MTA To Get Greater Management Role Over SFPD's Traffic Company
Erik J.
We have the same problem in Sacramento with new Regional Transit buses. It's infuriating that a sleek new bus has such a clunky function.
in response to The Rear Door Problem With Muni's New Hybrid Buses
Charles Siegel
Another piece of news: the story in yesterday's Chronicle saying Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates has given up his car because he wants to minimize his carbon footprint. Seems important to me, and I believe a first in the nation.
in response to Today's Headlines
marcos
It really is time to recall Gavin Newsom.
-marc
in response to MTA To Get Greater Management Role Over SFPD's Traffic Company
Banjo K
The more city government gets swallowed by MTA, the more I despair.
in response to MTA To Get Greater Management Role Over SFPD's Traffic Company
Josh
"The changes would allow the Department of Parking and Traffic officers to conduct late-night parking enforcement, a function currently held by the SFPD."
Well one good thing will come of this. I can't tell you how many times - after being on hold for 10 minutes - I'm asked by the SFPD what the make and model of the car parked on the sidewalk is. The answer: it doesn't matter, it's the one parked on the sidewalk! If there's another one, go ahead and ticket that one as well.
The idea that we're now agreeing upon a way for 311 to charge for Muni-related calls is bad bad bad. I'm sorry, but you don't create a service like MoviePhone, then start charging movie theaters for the cost of providing that service.
in response to MTA To Get Greater Management Role Over SFPD's Traffic Company