Sorry, but it is inexcusable to require that patrons use these change machines, and then allow them to sit broken and unusable for any period of time longer than about one hour. San Francisco only has a handful of subway stations to begin with, and of those, even fewer feature SFMTA-maintained change machines. The fact that riders without passes are still feeding fistfuls of coins into turnstiles to pay fare is already pretty deplorable — but telling riders (customers!) that their only option to pay fare for the train is to somehow travel to another station (not on the train, of course) and make change there is the type of interaction that only cements the widely-held view that Muni really could not care less about its riders, customer service office notwithstanding.

I recently found myself at Powell Station without fast pass, because the pass had mysteriously hidden itself under piles of paper on my desk. Upon opening my wallet, what do I discover but… a single $5 bill. Great: the denomination of bill you cannot get change for at the downtown stations. One minute later, I was back upstairs purchasing a bottle of water to get change, and then again on the platform — apparently having just missed a train I would have taken. Is this really the sort of complication riders should have to deal with? Of all things that Muni should make easy for riders, paying the fare is right at the top of the list.

All of the above is a clear reminder of the fact that San Francisco’s downtown subway stations could stand to be improved, especially in terms of making them clearer to navigate. Imagine you are a traveler entering one of these stations for the first time, with little to no familiarity with BART or Muni. Perhaps you wander for a bit between station booths, trying to ascertain the difference between the two systems and to determine where to catch the right train. There, you are greeted by the following “professional” signage:

You would like to ask a question but …

… no dice. Your only resource is a cluttered collection of signs littering the booth, including Microsoft Word documents that look like they were printed on someone’s home computer and then messily affixed to the booth with Scotch tape. And although more official printed signs have been posted indicating that you should press “H” on a BART machine to make change for Muni, some older MS Word signs remain, despite providing redundant content in a decidedly amateur way (see image at right). Please note, however, that even on the so-called “official” sign, Muni is spelled once as “Muni” and another time as “muni” — and BART is spelled incorrectly not just once, but twice: once as “Bart”, and once more in E.E. Cummings style as “bart.” Infuriating, but at least consistent with the similarly infuriating all-lowercase signs used on platforms, as well as for the headers on many other signs (this one included).

And while we are on the topic of the magical “H” button, it is not necessarily intuitive that you have to find a BART ticket machine (and then press a button labeled “H”) to make change for Muni fare — particularly after having been abruptly informed that BART is “not Muni” and that Muni is “not BART.” Having two sets of change machines might only add confusion, but it would be nice to have more elegant signage and a better interface to make it clear to new riders that the machines are used jointly.

Okay, end rant. Admittedly, station signs have improved somewhat, if slowly. Muni Metro’s station-specific maps on the platforms leave something to be desired, but finally, complete system-wide maps were recently added to platforms — though of course with the the standard misguided diagonal header that has graced every SFMTA publication since last year. But the four downtown stations shared by BART and Muni are the most heavily-traveled transit hubs in the Bay Area, used by locals, commuters, and visitors alike. As such, they should be made as comfortable and as intuitive as possible. For many visitors, their first glimpse of San Francisco is through one of these stations, after riding BART from the airport. Ideally, these stations would be civic centerpieces in their own right, but they fall considerably short. Is this really the best that a self-proclaimed “world-class” city can do?

It is hardly news that Bay Area transit websites are, on the whole, rather lackluster. The 511 Transit Planner has the benefit of covering for the Bay Area’s large collection of transit agencies, but it is sometimes slow and unwieldy, or it offers an inadequate trip path that is based on often fictional bus schedules. And no doubt you have run into the highly colorful vomit officially known as the SF Muni System Map, a document that is confusing enough that you practically have to know the whole system in advance just to follow it. I’ve wondered how many potential riders are sufficiently put off by navigating transit websites that they just decide to just drive instead.

What if you don’t want a whole trip planner? Wouldn’t it be nice to just type in your destination address on Google maps, and not only be able to get a feel for the location via Google Street View, but also see the exact corner where you can hop onto the closest accessible transit option? Or, wouldn’t it be nice to click on a train station icon and see a complete listing of all trains and buses — from any transit agency — that you could easily transfer to, and be just one click away from seeing the route of those transfers, with each and every stop mapped out? Why, yes, you might say.

I agree, and so this is the start of a (potentially long-term) project to create maps, using the Google interface, of transit stops in the Bay Area, ranging from major train stations to minor bus stops. Each stop is labeled with basic information: the buses or trains that stop there and the direction the transit vehicle is headed, as in the above image. In all instances, the precise location of the stop is marked (not merely the relevant intersection), and where necessary, other useful facts are added: e.g. transfer points, whether the stop is on the curb or on a traffic island, which surface light rail stops have accessible platforms, whether the stop receives limited bus service, and so forth. In other words, the goal is to give riders the opportunity to master the “transit terrain” of the area surrounding their destination, even if they have never visited that location before. I believe that this sort of tool could be more useful than a trip planner for many transit riders, but we will see if that is actually the case.

For train stations of regional importance, additional information is provided as to which neighborhoods are easily accessible with a single transfer from that station. Users can superimpose route maps on top of each other to figure out the easiest way to execute a transfer — for example, the above map, which superimposes the 38-Geary Muni bus on top of the BART system map. Of course, because the maps are integrated with the Google Maps interface, you can type in an address and find out exactly where to access transit near your destination. The hope is that these maps will help to remove some of the discomfort people might experience when traveling to less familiar destinations, and to encourage new and infrequent riders to leave their cars at home more often.

Also, because an eventual goal might be to expand this into a regional tool, the information provided would not be agency-specific. If a particular bus stop happens to be served by three transit agencies, a rider would know with a single click which agencies and which bus lines serve that stop, without having to visit three different websites or call three different phone numbers to discover that information. Transit agencies across the Bay Area tend to operate as separate kingdoms, rather than as units within a greater regional network, but these maps could help demystify that network and clarify the connection points that do exist.

To see the maps that are currently available, click here, or click the “Bay Area Transit Maps” link in the “Supplements” section of the sidebar. Right now, the BART map and a few popular Muni lines have been posted. A couple AC Transit lines will be coming next, so that folks in the East Bay can get in on the fun. This is a soft opening to test the waters — even on the maps currently made available, I still need to finish filling in the transfer information, particularly for Market Street, where every stop has a slew of of transfer options. Also, the transfer links on each individual stop are mostly incomplete, because not all the maps have been created yet. This transfer cross-links will become increasingly complete in time.

If feedback seems generally positive, and if the maps are reasonably well used, I will probably add more in the future and announce those additions here on the blog. I would like to leave the comments section of this post free for more general commentary, but if you notice a specific map error that needs to be fixed, please email me.

In a partnership with Cisco Systems, today Muni started its pilot schedule run of the new Connected Bus. Muni’s antiquated technology is sometimes quaint, and at other times downright frustrating or embarrassing — but that technology is about to get a booster shot of the future. The new Connected Buses feature a wireless connection, but even better, they include displays with real-time updates, displaying the position of the bus relative to the rest of the system — in other words, information about transfer points. That’s right, folks: interactive wayfinding, especially useful because although most Muni lines offer many transfer opportunities, very few operators actually make an effort to announce them. Data about the vehicle and its trips — fares, passenger counts, and mileage — are transmitted to a system that will hopefully help to streamline bus maintenance. In the future, the MTA plans to use the new buses in connection with giving buses priority at traffic signals, which is an important component of decreasing travel times.

Okay. Admittedly, Muni has no shortage of things to work out — very basic operational issues, like making sure it can actually provide the advertised level of service in a reasonably reliable and punctual manner. And yet, one thing is clear: if we intend to attract more choice riders and bring them into the transit fold, we will need to do more than just run the buses on time. Combined with reliable service, a more comfortable ride with extra amenities will help to achieve the underlying goal of increasing ridership. This latest effort is encouraging, in that it demonstrates that Muni is beginning to realize that its riders are actually customers, and that everyone who does not ride Muni is a potential customer.

Connected Buses will run on weekdays through April 8, approximately 6:40 am – 11:00 am and 2:00 pm – 6:40 pm. The lucky routes are: 1, 1AX, 1BX, 2, 10, 12, 18, 23, 26, 28, 29, 43, 47, 48, 52, and 71. Check out the full schedule here.

But hey, this is the Bay Area. Since when has transit here worked the way it should?

Instead of meticulously updated maps, one instead finds a time capsule of sorts, a treasure trove of outdated maps — some rather obscenely so — chronicling a mini-history of service to the Transbay Terminal. The geek in me loves this sort of thing, so here you are reading a post about it. As usual, full-sized versions of all these maps are hosted on my Flickr account, so please click through any image you’d like to see in close-up detail.

One map posted in the Transbay Terminal (pictured at right) shows the entire Bay Area region, clearly displaying our decentralized patchwork quilt of transit agencies. Unfortunately, the design is hideous, and the map doesn’t make particularly clear how one might transfer from system to system, or what the level of coordination is between transfers. In short, the map simultaneously contains too much information and not enough information. It is also shows BART’s terminus on the Peninsula to be Colma, thus not conveying the quite important piece of information that since 2003, BART has terminated at Millbrae, not Colma, and also provides direct service to San Francisco International Airport.

A portion of the bus stop map which indicates a stop for the now-retired 15-Third bus,

but this error is less egregious, since that bus was running up until just a few months ago. Then again, how can we expect the map to acknowledge the removal of the 15, when it also labels the 32-Embarcadero bus,

a line that was disbanded several years ago when its route was absorbed by historic streetcar and Muni Metro extensions. The above picture also suggests that the 66-Quintara bus still runs downtown, something which may surprise its riders.

Another map:

The 12-Folsom line no longer stops where this map suggests. As for SamTrans, I don’t think the TX even exists anymore, let alone serve the terminal, and the map doesn’t acknowledge the PX or RX lines. A quick check of the recent Golden Gate Transit map (PDF) of this area shows several additional errors.

Perhaps the most amusing map of all is the map of San Francisco depicting the current state of freeways… current, that is, if the year were 1989, and the Loma Prieta earthquake had not yet hit. The map shows two fingers of freeway poking north of Market Street. On the right side of the picture is the Embarcadero Freeway, which connected drivers coming off the Bay Bridge to Chinatown and North Beach, but in doing so, separated San Francisco from its waterfront. On the left side is the Central Freeway, which once cast its dark shadows all the way to Turk Street. Probably the best thing about the Loma Prieta Earthquake was that its force damaged both of these stretches of freeway; the structures either had to be fixed or removed. Luckily, the city chose the second plan of action, in a momentous, more recent victory for the infamous Freeway Revolt that started a few decades earlier. Since then, San Francisco has since been reunited with its waterfront; where the ugly, noisy Embarcadero Freeway once stood, the sun now shines (from time to time, anyway) on pedestrian plazas, a historic streetcar line, and a revitalized waterfront and Ferry Building. In the meantime, the Hayes Valley neighborhood, once viciously cut in half by the Central Freeway, is still in transition, since the final work associated with retreating that stretch of freeway to Market Street only finished in 2005. Hayes Valley has already enjoyed some of the benefits associating with tearing down the freeway, and we can look forward to increased vibrancy as empty parcels once occupied by freeway are replaced by new apartments and neighborhood shops.

In any case, neither freeway currently exists, as these Transbay Terminal maps would have us believe. At least the terminal will be demolished in the next couple of years, and if we’re lucky, the new Transit Center might just have updated maps. Check out the time capsule soon, before it disappears!