Trying Out Rear Boarding

Posted by Eric ⋅ 23 January 2008 ⋅ 1 Comment

Trying out rear boarding. I wish I knew how long I’ve been saying that Muni should rethink its official prohibition of rear boarding on buses, and pronto; if I had a dime each time that I’ve mentioned it over the years, why, I might even be earning as much money as Nathaniel Ford by now. On the chronically crowded lines, riders have long discovered for themselves the virtues of rear boarding — avoiding the shuffle from the front to the back, but also possibly snagging a seat immediately after it has been vacated. In any event, Muni has finally caught on to rear boarding. What took you guys so long? In addition to reducing dwell time, extending Proof of Payment to the bus system will also help to streamline fare payment by utilizing the same policy for light rail vehicles as for buses. But, while we are on the subject, how about we actually enforce POP? Officers that board a train at one station and then disembark one station later can hardly be called robust fare enforcement, and it would be nice if we could skip right past the eruption of yet another fare evasion scandal. [San Francisco Examiner]

Discussion

One thought on “Trying Out Rear Boarding”

One of the basic ideas behind community policing is getting officers out of patrol cars and onto the streets, and in San Francisco this has to include Muni lines. (in fact, why not have some cops ride around on Muni to get to and from the beats they’ll walk anyway? patrol cars can always respond to emergency calls.)

it’s OK if officers get off one or two stops later as long as they do their thing with respect to POP. the upside is enormous.

congrats on the redesign! A

Posted by Anthony | 23 January 2008, 4:02 pm