Improving Muni
I had a bad experience with Muni today. And I thought about it. And I’ve come to the conclusion that Muni needs some work. (I know, I know. Big surprise.) So I’m going to make a list of things that Muni (specifically Muni Metro) needs to do to improve things. As I’m new to the City, many of the things I have noticed have to do with inconsistencies and quirks that can trip up newbies.
- Standardize the freaking arrival announcements.
- Sometimes it’s “Approaching, inbound, two car, Embarcadero in three minutes” and sometimes it’s “Approaching, inbound, two car, J in three minutes.” Why should someone need to know the ultimate destination of their train? But you only ever hear that quirk inbound, the outbound announcements always use the line letter.
- Sometimes it’s “Approaching, inbound, two car, N, N in three minutes,” and sometimes there’s only one “N”, still for a two-car train.
- Some stations still have signs saying “Downtown” instead of “Inbound.” Inbound is confusing (moreso for busses than for Muni Metro), but since we’ve settled on it, let’s get the signage standardized.
- Why are there long periods when the arrival times aren’t being displayed on the LED display screens? That’s what they’re there for, not to scroll messages across explaining that arrival times will be displayed there. Just display them already! We’ll figure it out.
- Why the hell aren’t we running 3-car trains on the N line during peak hours yet? Every morning the inbound 2-car trains are packed to the gills. So much so, that I often can’t get on. We have 10-car platforms or so, let’s use them!
- There should be a place on the Muni website specifically to let the public submit vehicle reports. Missing lights, broken seats, graffiti, etc. They have a “comments” webform, but that’s geared toward reporting Muni personnel.
- In fact, the website has all sorts of issues. What’s up with that JavaScript rollover bullshit? And why are there pages on there that look like this? At least they’re not putting up Word documents as public records anymore.
I’ll think of some more, I’m sure. I think I’m going to try to make it to an MTA board meeting. At least suggest some of these changes.
Brian Said,
July 7, 2006 @ 00:33
Regarding #1: Only inbound trains get their destinations spoken... for the most part. The only exception to this is the Castro shuttle. Most inbound trains are either Embarcadero or Mission Bay -- and yes, there are some exceptions.
All outbound trains, with the exception of the Castro shuttle are announced by their letter. You never hear the woman say: “Approaching, outbound. One car. SF ZOO.”
What’s really frustrating is when the woman says crap like: “The next outbound train is inbound” -- in which case the LED displays usually show “SEE SIGNS ON CAR”.
And my personal favorite: “Approaching, outbound. Two car. K. L.” Which I can only assume breaks off at West Portal Station.
Yeah it needs more work, but its not nearly as bad as San Jose’s light rail which... only recently sorta started to have arrival times, but only when trains are 5 minutes away -- pointless!
I’m curious to what they do when they extend the N line to the Bayview.
-N-Judah & -N-Judah Said,
May 6, 2008 @ 15:22
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