Saturday, May 11, 2024
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Paying Our “Fare” Share: Fare Compliance and Enforcement on Muni
By Melissa Culross
Tapping a Clipper card is one of the many ways to pay to ride Muni.
Maybe this has happened to you: You board Muni and tap your Clipper card or pay your cash fare, but lots of other people get on without doing the same. We understand how frustrating it is to see people appear to cheat the system and ride for free. However, most people who don’t tap the Clipper card reader or pay at the fare box aren’t doing anything wrong.
At the same time, fare evasion has increased over the last few years. We take this issue seriously and are doing something about it. We plan to hire more fare inspectors once our upcoming budget goes into effect.
Looks can be deceiving when it comes to paying fares
There are many ways to pay Muni fares, including with cash, Clipper and the Muni Mobile app. Discount fares and passes are available for certain riders.
Some passengers are allowed to ride Muni for free. Young people 18 and under ride for free and don’t need any kind of pass or special ticket. Seniors with lower incomes, people with disabilities and people experiencing homelessness can apply for passes to ride for free. You can learn about all the ways to pay for Muni and our free or discounted pass programs at our Fares webpage (SFMTA.com/Fares).
It’s important to know that it may look like someone hasn’t paid their fare when, in fact, they have. Many of our programs allow riders to pay before boarding. For example:
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With Muni Mobile, you activate your ticket in the app and don’t need to tap or show the operator anything.
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If you buy single or multi-day visitor passports, you only need to tap if you load them onto a Clipper card.
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If you transfer from one route or line to another after paying cash, you can board without showing the operator your paper ticket.
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Tickets to events at the Chase Center include unlimited rides on Muni, except for the cable cars. No need to tap or show anything.
Just remember to keep proof of payment with you when you pay your fare. That could be your ticket, app, Clipper card or pass.
Increase in fare evasion
Most Muni riders pay their fares. But too many others do not, and fare evasion is on the rise. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, around 12% of people on Muni who should have paid a fare did not. We believe that number has grown to just over 20% today and are working to confirm that estimate.
Our ridership continues to increase and is up to 76% of pre-pandemic levels, as of March 2024. But we aren’t reaping the full financial benefit of that recovery because of fare evasion. Muni is a public service and a public good. The system is critical to our city’s climate goals and its economic vitality. It also promotes social and racial equity. It isn’t right to let some people choose not to pay their fair share.
Transit Fare Inspector Veronica Lujan checks fare compliance on the F Market line.
More fare inspectors
To cut down on fare evasion, we plan to hire three dozen additional transit fare inspectors. We have allocated money in our upcoming two-year budget to pay for these positions.
Our fare inspectors work on routes and lines throughout the entire Muni system in a way that is fair and equitable. The inspectors are there to encourage compliance and increase fare revenue, not punish people. The more riders see our fare inspectors on Muni, the more likely it is that people will pay their fares. We are not trying to make money by writing tickets.
Our inspectors also help riders in other ways:
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They have information about our fares, including our discount pass programs.
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They educate anyone who hasn’t paid, instead of just citing them.
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They have information about supportive services for riders who may be experiencing homelessness.
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Their presence encourages safety and security on Muni, even though they aren’t part of law enforcement.
Fare inspectors are there to support riders, and we are looking forward to offering more of that support.
More uniform payment methods
We know that the different fare payment methods can be confusing, especially when some people have to tap a card reader and others do not. But there is good news. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission is working to update Clipper card technology. This will allow us to offer more fare options and passes on Clipper. Plus, people will be able to tap a credit card to pay fares. This should result in more people tagging card readers when they board and all riders feeling more confident that their fellow passengers are paying their fair share.
Muni depends on your support. Fares keep the system running. They help pay for programs that have made Muni faster, safer, more reliable and cleaner than it has been in decades. Put simply, fares help hundreds of thousands of people get around every day.
Every dollar invested in Muni goes a long way. When we all do our part by paying the appropriate fare to ride, Muni can serve everyone better.
Published May 10, 2024 at 11:07PM
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Friday, May 10, 2024
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How We Can Choose a Cleaner, Greener San Francisco
By Edward Wright
During Muni Heritage Weekend, riders took a green trip through Dolores Park in one of our historic streetcars.
Five years ago, the city declared a climate state of emergency. We see the climate crisis in our rising seas. We feel it with worsening storms, raging wildfires and a warming planet.
The good news: we can all make choices to confront it. San Francisco has chosen to be a transit-first city, to prioritize safety for people walking and rolling, and to lead the way on clean energy. That’s why San Francisco was again ranked number one in the nation on the latest clean energy survey. You can view the survey results on the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy’s City Clean Energy Scorecard webpage.
There is no way to meet our city’s climate goals without green options to get around. And turning these goals into reality is up to all of us. Every time you use a green option to get around, you’re helping build a better future. That’s why we’re always working to make it easy and accessible for you to ride transit, walk and bike. And to meet our climate goals, we need to make low-carbon and no-carbon options the best way to travel.
Following Earth Month and the latest clean energy scorecard, we want to celebrate your impact. We’ll share what you make possible when you use green options to get around.
Climate change is a big problem. Transportation is a big part of the solution.
San Francisco is not immune to climate change, and we have a moral obligation to do our part to confront it. We need to adapt to be more resilient and turn our city’s Climate Action Plan into reality.
Every time you walk, bike, roll, or ride public transit, you get us closer to our goal of net zero emissions by 2040. By choosing sustainable travel, you help us slash our greenhouse gas emissions. That’s critical, because transportation is one of the biggest sources in San Francisco:
Accessible version of the San Francisco Greenhouse Gas Emissions infographic
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Private cars and trucks emit 30% of our city’s total greenhouse gases
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Muni emits less than 0.001%
And of course, biking and walking emit no greenhouse gases at all!
Muni runs the greenest fleet of any major city in North America
Muni is green and getting greener. Some consider electric vehicles a recent innovation -- but we have been using them for over a century!
Our light rail vehicles are electric and fossil-fuel free. Our iconic cable cars, trolleybuses and historic street cars are tried-and-true electric, zero-emission technology. All our electric vehicles run on 100% renewably generated hydro power from Hetch Hetchy. That's critical because electric vehicles are only as green as the power they run on.
For our bus fleet, the SFMTA was an early adopter of hybrid-electric technology all the way back in 2007. Our buses are very low emission. Still, we’re committed to achieving a 100% fossil-fuel free fleet. (We’re equally committed to a just transition for our workforce.)
Our taxis, a major part of our paratransit services are also very green! With over 90% low-emission vehicles, San Francisco has the cleanest taxi fleet of any major city in the nation. To further solidify itself as a national leader, the SFMTA is offering a new taxi rebate program. This way, we can help facilitate the taxi industry's transition to clean vehicles.
In 2019 we launched Green Zones. In this program, we run hybrid buses on batteries in environmentally impacted communities. This means no emissions for neighborhoods with poor air quality or a history of environmental injustice. You can learn more in our blog about the Green Zone program.
And today we’re running a pilot program to test battery-electric buses. This will show how they handle San Francisco’s hills and prepare us to use more electric buses in the future.
We have 10 battery-electric buses now in service for our pilot program.
While we work towards a zero-emission Muni, the best way to reduce vehicle emissions in San Francisco is to ride transit, walk, bike or roll. Muni is safer, faster, cleaner, and more reliable than it’s been in decades. So, choosing transit has never been easier!
Every part of the SFMTA is working for a cleaner, greener city. Our Streets Division is working to make San Francisco one of the best cities in the world to walk and bike. Our sign and paint shops take climate action with every crosswalk and stop sign. Our facilities staff are preparing for our all-electric future and cutting emissions from our buildings. And everyone who cleans, operates, maintains and secures our buses and trains gives you a green option to get around.
On Earth Day, we kicked off a new climate action campaign to make sure Muni riders know: you take climate action every time you take Muni, walk, bike or roll. So, keep an eye out for some new signs on our shelters and buses, keep going green and together we can choose a more sustainable San Francisco.
Published May 10, 2024 at 04:32AM
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