Akit's Complaint Department

Warriors Coming to SF - Expect Muni Nightmares

noreply@blogger.com (Akit) — Tue, 22 May 2012 18:41:00 +0000

There's now word from the city the Golden State Warriors will have their new home at Piers 30/32 here in San Francisco and be open in 2017. While sad for Oakland, it's great news for our city to get sales tax money and have a large indoor sports arena for our city.

Surely this is exciting news, but being a local resident of the city, I have fears of a big nightmare.

As we all know, AT&T Park is not far away from the new arena site and if you have ever gone to a Giants home game, you know how bad traffic and transit can be. Traffic before and after games is slow or just a standstill. If you ride Muni metro to the ballpark, you know about the passenger crush loads on every single train. For Caltrain and BART, they are also busy shipping baseball fans to and from the game.

But with the Warriors in town, the worst nightmare will be when both the Giants and Warriors plays on the same day at the same time. I don't think Muni metro will be able to take on the huge loads of passengers going to both games.

Muni was smart when they built the platforms along the Embarcadero, they are so long, you can fit at least three train cars. But Muni metro has a few big problems:

They can't operate three car trains anywhere on the surface or subway (something about running in "tow mode"). The more trains, the better the capacity.
The passenger loads are already at crush loads for Giants games.
The passengers living along the T-Third line will continue to experience hell because it's both one-car trains and for many, can't get on the train to get home.
There's always a backup of Muni metro trains after an event because they line-up trains on the revenue track. Passengers from Caltrain and the T-Third gets stuck waiting for trains ahead to clear-out.
There's usually a back-up of inbound metro trains at Embarcadero before Giants games. Why? Muni officials holds the ballpark bound trains longer at the platform and fill them to capacity while other non-ballpark bound trains are waiting in line.

I think Muni can at least start the planning stages on how to handle the Warriors crowds. Let's remember there's not much parking around the area and more will be depending on public transportation to get people to and from the games.

Here's a few of my ideas for Muni:

Realign the metro tracks along the surface route nearest to have three tracks. The outer tracks are revenue tracks and the middle track can be a staging area for extra trains so they don't block regular service provided by the N-Judah and T-Third lines.
Provide express bus service from Embarcadero station to Warriors arena.
Find a way for Giants fans to utilize the future Central Subway while Warriors fans uses the Howard street Muni platform.

Just a few other random transit ideas (more of a dream):

Definitely more ferries with bigger capacity. Extra boarding/disembarking doors on the boats will help.
Utilize AT&T Park's parking lot for vehicle parking with a nearby ferry dock to provide frequent high speed ferry service to and from the Warriors arena.
Disneyland style multi car trams to major transit stations (is that even street legal?).
Bore another subway tunnel to serve the arena and ballpark.
Offer incentives for people to take transit, such as buy a game ticket and get half-price fares on public transit.
How about a monorail? "Monorail, monorail, monorail! Mono... D'oh!"

Don't pay with Clipper for Muni's Bay to Breakers 2012 Express Buses

noreply@blogger.com (Akit) — Fri, 18 May 2012 17:57:00 +0000

UPDATE #2: Muni re-updated their website to state if you pay the Clipper fare for $12, you get a return trip on the special express buses AND a 90 minute transfer. This update is a little too late as the B2B is already over.

UPDATE: Muni has recently announced the following:

"$8 fares for pass holders must be paid with Clipper cards and will receive two express trips, one to and one from the race"

Original Post:
SFMTA just released information about the upcoming Bay to Breakers 2012 Muni service and while it almost seems the same information, there is one critical piece you should be aware of:

If you plan to ride the express buses or take the metro, expect to pay $12 adult fare for the privilege. Muni will accept both cash fares in the fare box and Clipper.

But there's a big catch:
If you pay in cash, you get a transfer valid until 5PM.
If you pay with Clipper, you only get a 90 minute transfer.

What should you do?
If you plan to ride Muni expresses to the start line and get home at the end of the race, PAY IN CASH. With the extended paper transfer, you can ride Muni round-trip and it's only $6 a ride. If you use Clipper, you'll pay $24 for that round-trip.

Have a Muni pass?
If you have a Muni pass on your Clipper card, you pay $8 for a ride with 90 minute transfer, but you still pay MORE than the $12 cash fare because of the 90 minute transfer ($16 e-cash w/Clipper & Muni pass vs. just $12 in cash).

While I am criticizing Muni for their poor job of not fixing the Clipper card issue to allow passengers to pay $12 or $8 AND include an e-transfer valid until 5PM, it's also very unfair to those who have a Muni pass on their Clipper card and will still pay an extra $4 to complete a round-trip versus just paying cash.

For more information about Muni's role for the event, click here.

Update: Positive Change in Policy for SF State Students Taking BART and Muni to Campus

noreply@blogger.com (Akit) — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:00:00 +0000

I've been reporting for the past few weeks about Muni's plan to end the issuing of paper transfers for free Muni rides at Daly City BART in favor of going electronic only on the Clipper card starting June 1st.

For many regular residents, the change would not affect them as they would still be able to ride Muni away and back to that particular BART station. For SF State students, staff and faculty, the end of paper transfers would result in a much more challenging problem.

As I've mentioned before, with the current policy regarding the use of the Clipper card, SF State affiliates have two options, they can take the free ride on the Muni 28 line or take the SF State shuttle. Either way, the ride away from the station is free. However, the return ride is much more challenging as those who took the free shuttle earlier has their free ride back on Muni voided because of a current rule: If a passenger does not tag their Clipper card on a Muni bus within one hour of exiting the Daly City station, the return ride transfer is VOID.

When it comes to SF State students and rising university tuition and fees, justifying to pay an extra $2 to ride back to BART can get expensive and not many are happy about the changes.

Confusing Information to the Public
What really stirred the pot of controversy was what the university's CampusMemo (a weekly employee newsletter) and the student operated Golden Gate Xpress newspaper reported to the public. Both the CampusMemo and Xpress reported that the return ride on Muni to Daly City BART would be free, even if the person took the campus shuttle to the campus. But they did not highlight their source of information about this new change in policy, and I solely relied on the SFMTA's alerts page about the upcoming change on June 1st.

When You Need Help, Just Ask!
Instead leaving the big elephant in the room with a huge sack of peanuts to see what will happen, I decided to contact the SFMTA for some assistance. I e-mailed Paul Rose, Media Relations Manager of the SFMTA and asked him if the university was correct in the new policy change to allow SF State affiliates to ride back to BART for free within 24 hours of exiting the station, even if the person took the campus shuttle away from the station.

Paul Rose, SFMTA Media Relations Manager stated:

SF State brought this issue to the SFMTA’s attention and have come up with a solution that will be implemented no later than August 1. Although the initial transition will take place effective June 1 and customers will be required to take the first transfer to Muni within 1 hour from BART, this will not impact SF State students as the shuttle does not run during the summer. A business rule change will be in place by August 1 which will extend the transfer period requirement for the first trip on Muni to 23 hours which will continue to allow SF State students to take either the shuttle or Muni for their first trip and allow a second return trip within 24 hours.

We will update our website once the change is closer to taking place.

A Win for SF State Affiliates
Based on what Mr. Rose stated, this means SF State affiliates can take their first Muni bus within 23 hours of exiting Daly City, and can still take a second free ride on Muni within 24 hours. This definitely benefits the campus community and provides additional flexibility for those who takes the campus shuttle. It also clarifies the confusion of if they will have to pay for the ride back to BART or not.

An Exploit for Non-SF State Affiliates?
While it does benefit the students, the unintentional consequence (or benefit) is that non-SF State affiliates can also use this to their advantage. If the passenger exits Daly City BART and a family member picks them up from the station, the passenger still has two free rides on Muni and must use the first free ride within 23 hours and is eligible for the second ride within 24 hours of exiting the station.

Why? Muni buses and trains does not register on their Clipper card operator consoles on what route and direction they operate. In fact, if you log into your Clipper card account online and download your activity report, you will see that if you tag your Clipper card on a Muni vehicle reader, it will say: "SFM Bus" indicating you took the Muni, and "MTANONE" as the route.

If Muni maintains that policy of not indicating what route the bus runs on their Clipper consoles, for the bus lines that covers Daly City BART (14L, 28, 28L, and 54), this means passengers scores two free rides on practically any bus line on Muni. Say for example: I exit Daly City BART with my Clipper card and my wife (in reality, I'm still single) picks me up at the station. The next morning, I can ride any two Muni lines I want and not pay a single cent because the operator console uses a generic universal identification for the entire Muni fleet.

I guess you win some and lose some.

On a final note, this is the first time I've ever contacted a media relations manager for anything relating to my blog, and I appreciate Paul Rose taking time out of his day to conduct some research and provide me a helpful response to share with my readers. Cheers to you.

Easy Solution for SF State Students Regarding Change in BART-Muni Free Transfers to Clipper Cards

noreply@blogger.com (Akit) — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:00:00 +0000

Is there a solution for the upcoming change in free Muni rides for Daly City BART passengers that are also SF State students? If you recall from my previous posts (post #1 and post #2), Muni has decided to eliminate the transfers and go Clipper only starting June 1, 2012.

With the paper transfer, a student can take the SF State shuttle and still get a free ride back on Muni to Daly City BART. However, with Clipper, a student MUST ride Muni in order to ‘earn’ the free Muni return ride back to the BART station. With the campus providing the free shuttle, it eases the crowds on the Muni 28 line, but with the mandatory Clipper card transition, this will be a big problem as the flow of passengers will be uneven.

As I mentioned before, students have two options when they exit BART:

Ride the Muni 28 away from Daly City to get free ride, and can choose the SF State shuttle or Muni 28 to get back to Daly City BART.
Ride the SF State shuttle away from Daly City, and must take the SF State shuttle back to Daly City BART or pay $2 on Clipper card for return ride on Muni 28.

Due to the problem with the automatic voiding of the e-transfer, this will mean more people will ride the 28 line to SF State because they have two free options for the back to BART. By taking the shuttle away from BART, they are stuck with only one option for the free return ride.

Students interviewed by the Golden Gate Xpress said they hate the policy change from Muni.

I said to myself, how can this be easier for everyone? One idea I had is to install Clipper card readers on the SF State shuttles to validate the transfer for passengers to get a ride back to BART via Muni. Now I realize that’s a very expensive option and shuttles would have to be taken out of service to install the equipment.

I thought of a very low cost, less confusing, and easy solution that will work:
Muni should allow SF State students, staff, and faculty to take the bus for free for the return ride back to Daly City BART (no Clipper card required).

How? Every student and employee of the campus carries their university ID. Students, faculty, and staff show their campus ID to the Muni operator at the 19th & Holloway bus stop for their free return ride.

The flashing of the campus ID is only good at 19th & Holloway and only for the route going to Daly City BART.

Passengers would have to follow the honor system to only exit at Daly City BART and not any of the interim stops between SF State and BART.

Cost wise, it wouldn’t make much of a difference than what’s happening right now with the paper transfers (take transfer, ride SF State shuttle away, and return to station on Muni). The Clipper card makes it challenging and students will be grumpy if they have to dish out an extra $2 because their e-transfer expired for not taking an away trip on Muni, or being forced to wait in long lines for the SF State shuttle.

What do you think of this idea?

Be Warned: Curb Address Painting Scam in Outer Richmond District of SF

noreply@blogger.com (Akit) — Mon, 07 May 2012 14:43:00 +0000

I'm no fan of law breakers, and especially those who is looking for a quick buck from elderly residents of my neighborhood, the Outer Richmond district of San Francisco.

When I was getting ready to leave my house just last Saturday, I noticed a couple of my neighbors had a piece of paper taped over their curb, so I took a look and shot a photo (as seen above).

I've known that painting addresses on curbs next to the driveway is both a scam and a violation of the law. The last time I caught someone doing it, I got super lucky when a SFPD officer's car was approaching my block, I flagged it and told him that he's just feet away.

For what happened just a couple days ago, I gave a courtesy call to the SFPD Richmond station at 6th and Geary. The sergeant said they can't do anything in the immediate time and they can only take action if someone sees a person doing the act. He gave me the phone number to dispatch and that ended our conversation.

I put out a tweet to warn everyone about this:

Outer Richmond residents: curb painting scam to happen today. Do not give moneyCall SFPD 553-0123 if you see them. twitter.com/AgentAkit/stat…
— Akit (@AgentAkit) May 6, 2012

What's up with the scam?
Here's the problem. It's a violation of the law to hire someone or do it yourself, and could be considered graffiti, for the exception of the SFMTA who is the only authority allowed to paint curbs (public property). The city only sanctions the SFMTA to paint curbs for parking purposes, and for residential areas, it's normally the red curbs which costs a couple hundred, and gives the city authority to ticket anyone parking too close to one's driveway.

Here's a video where a business next to Union Square hired painters to paint their curbs, but was illegal because the city didn't do the job as required. They also painted over a blue zone:

For this particular curb scam, they call themselves "Community Services" and I found through a search online that they've been doing this before as noted on this flier (click here). The one found on that link is exactly similar, but the one found on my block now has a sobbing story, by providing "self-employment for students and artists throughout the city."

My response, they are putting up a fake suck-up story to suck you out of $15.

Anyway, emergency personnel can find your address, it's on the front of every single building!

On Sunday... caught in the act!
Odds of me catching the crook in the act was a long shot, and the odds was much worse because I didn't get home after the Giants game until 6:30PM. While I was eating dinner, I heard outside the sound of a spray paint can. I looked out my window and noticed a person walking in white coveralls (almost like a hazmat suit) and wearing an orange construction vest. He was also carrying stencils clipped to his hip.

The guy was looking at a fancy car across from my house and looked at the sign saying not to paint the curb. He continued on his way up the block. I knew I caught the bastard in the act and called dispatch to nab him.

While I don't know if the SFPD ever caught the guy, in my point of view: if there's a person wearing white coveralls and an orange vest walking down your street, I don't think the police will have a hard time finding the person.

I don't see any desperate "students" or "artists" going up and down my block doing this. It's just one person doing the job. Just invest a little money in some white paint, black spray paint, and some stencils, write a fake sobbing story, and here comes the $15 to $20.

Today's PSA
If they knock or ring your doorbell, tell them no and do not give any money to them, and call SFPD at: 415-553-0123 to give a full description of the suspect.

Clarifying Misconceptions about Free Muni Rides when Exiting Daly City BART

noreply@blogger.com (Akit) — Fri, 04 May 2012 19:00:00 +0000

In a previous post, I mentioned about Muni’s decision to end paper versions of the yellow BART to Muni transfers from Daly City BART and that it will go electronic only via the Clipper card.

The message being given to the public is going in multiple directions, so I’m going to clarify this by getting the message from the source (SFMTA/Muni).

In the SF State CampusMemo released yesterday, it states:

“Beginning June 1, free transfers between BART and the Muni 28 line at Daly City Station will no longer be done via paper transfer. In order to get the free transfer from BART to the Muni 28 line, fares will have to be paid with a Clipper card. The Muni return fare will also be free if the return trip takes place within 24 hours, regardless of whether the BART-to-SF State trip was on the Muni 28 bus or the SF State shuttle.”

The last sentence (highlighted in bold) throws the whole situation in the wrong direction. My interpretation of the last sentence: If a person exits Daly City BART with their Clipper card and boards the SF State shuttle, they are obligated to a free ride back to BART via Muni 28 line.

Here’s the correct way to understand how this works: As per SFMTA:

“Beginning June 1, 2012, paper transfers will no longer be available for free transfers between BART and Muni at Daly City Station. If you transfer from BART at Daly City Station to the Muni 14L, 28 or 54 routes, your Muni fare will be free only when you pay your BART fare with a Clipper card and you board within one hour after exiting BART. After making your outbound journey on Muni, your Muni return fare will also be free when you return within 24 hours. You must make an outbound journey to receive the free return.”

Therefore, the last sentence from Muni (highlighted in bold) clearly states that a passenger must take an outbound ride on Muni (not the SF State shuttle) in order to qualify for the return ride back to BART. How does that work? The free rides (both outbound and inbound) is automatically voided after one hour passes from the time the passenger exits the BART station. A person "earns" their free ride back to Daly City BART only if they validate their Clipper card by tagging their card on a Muni bus when leaving Daly City BART.

Since Muni is the official authority regarding this matter, SF State is not correct in their statement that taking the campus shuttle qualifies for a free ride on Muni back to the BART station.

There's very few solutions that can resolve this matter, such as installing Clipper card readers on SF State shuttle buses to validate the cards when students board the shuttle at Daly City, but as long as there are no more yellow paper transfers, this will be a long term problem and will surely rake Muni extra $2 fares here and there.

Let’s go over some common scenarios people may encounter, and if they would be eligible for free Muni rides:
Scenario #1: A passenger exits Daly City BART and uses the same Clipper card they exited to ride Muni 28 to SF State within one hour of exiting the station. The passenger returns from SF State to Daly City BART via the 28 line within 24 hours of boarding the first Muni bus using the same Clipper card. What is the correct answer?

Scenario #2: A passenger exits Daly City BART and rides the SF State shuttle to campus. The passenger returns to Daly City BART via the 28 line after his/her classes are over for the day and uses the same Clipper card he/she exited BART with. What is the correct answer?

Scenario #3: A passenger exits Daly City BART and gets picked-up by a family member to take them home. The passenger rides the 28 line back to Daly City BART the next morning using the same Clipper card he/she used to exit BART yesterday. What is the correct answer?

Answers:
Answer to Scenario #1: The passenger receives a free ride on Muni for exiting BART ($0 deducted from Clipper card), and receives a free ride back to BART ($0 deducted from Clipper card). The reason: He/she followed the procedures correctly: Exited BART and entered Muni with same Clipper card within one hour of from time of exit of BART gate to the bus, and boarded Muni for the return trip within 24 hours.

Answer to Scenario #2: While the passenger gets a free ride away from BART via the campus shuttle, he/she is not eligible for the free ride back to Daly City BART because Muni’s rules state a passenger must make an outbound trip on a Muni bus.

Answer to Scenario #3: Similar to the answer for Scenario #2, passenger does not qualify for free Muni ride back to Daly City BART because the passenger did not ride Muni away from the station.

Serra Bowl - Up For Auction, Never Comes Back

noreply@blogger.com (Akit) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:22:00 +0000

It’s pretty much the end of Serra Bowl. Instead of ripping out the lanes and moving to another location, or trying to fight back and get the lease renewed, they’ve pretty much made their choice.

They put the last nail in the coffin and will be buried under cement. This Friday, April 27, the alley will be having an auction on everything, including the lanes and machinery.

The preview will start at 9AM and the auction starts at 11AM. This is an opportunity if you want to buy some souvenirs, but it’s mostly the people who have a lot of money to buy the lanes and machinery to hopefully open a new bowling center or get some spare parts.

So this is how the saga of Serra Bowl ends, in total disaster. I’m very disappointed.

No More Paper Transfers at Daly City BART - Going Clipper Only June 1st

noreply@blogger.com (Akit) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 03:17:00 +0000

Some not so great news for those of you who love the yellow paper transfers at the Daly City BART station's paid area...

Effective June 1, 2012, the machines will be taken out of service and those who ride BART and transfer to Muni must use a the same Clipper card they exit BART to get a free Muni ride away from the station (as per Muni updates page).

How it works:
When you exit BART at Daly City (regardless if you pay with e-cash or HVD), you will automatically receive an e-transfer encoded on your card. When boarding a Muni bus (14L, 28, 28L, and 54) and tagging your card, you will receive a free ride and get your card automatically encoded for a free ride back to the BART station within 24 hours.

[Big secret] perk:
The Clipper system is a little bit dumb. Let's say you exited BART and took the 28-19th Avenue bus away from the station. You get off at Geary Blvd. & Park Presidio and you want to transfer to the 38L. Because the Clipper system (for Muni) does not know what bus route you are riding or which direction, your second ride (on the 38L) is FREE. This works on all Muni lines, it doesn't have to be the 38L.

This basically means, you get two free rides regardless of whatever line and direction you take, as long as you meet these minimum rules:

You tag your card on a Muni bus within one hour of exiting Daly City BART.
You take your second ride on a Muni bus within 24-hours when you complete the above task.

Unlike the two part paper transfer, you can only use the paper transfer to leave BART and return to BART. Clipper: Free reign!

Disadvantages:
One disadvantage is if someone picks you up from the station or you take your car home from the BART lot. If you take a paper transfer and get an alternate ride home, getting back to BART via Muni is free because you still have a piece of paper giving you the right to a free ride back. But with going Clipper only, your free ride the next day is void because of the one hour rule when exiting the station.

The second (and WORST) disadvantage is if you ride the SF State shuttle. This is going to be the biggest headache. Back in May 2011, I mentioned about this big problem and said the easiest way to beat the problem is with the yellow paper transfer.

Here's the problem: Let's say you exited Daly City BART, earned your e-transfer on your card, and take the free SF State shuttle away from the station. When you want to return to BART from SF State, you are left with two options:

Take the SF State shuttle back to Daly City BART (free ride, no Clipper required).
Take the 28 or 28L bus back to Daly City BART, and it will cost you $2 because after one hour after you received your e-transfer from leaving the BART station, it becomes VOID on the Muni ride back.

Option two becomes a big issue. Lots of SF State students take the yellow transfer and can easily decide while waiting in the SF State shuttle line (back to BART) that if they see a 28 bus approaching, they'll take that instead and get their free ride. But... with going Clipper only on those BART transfers, they'll learn that they lost $2 from their Clipper e-cash because they took the SF State shuttle to campus instead of Muni.

Is there an easy solution? The answer is no. You have to remind yourself:

"If I take the SF State shuttle to campus, I must take the shuttle back to BART."
OR: "If I take the Muni 28/28L to campus, I have the option to take either the SF State shuttle or 28/28L back to BART."

The SF State problem is the most challenging. I am hopeful that the city, BART, Muni, and SF State officials can work out a deal that allows all SF State affiliates, including the staff and faculty the privilege to have free BART rides extended to Daly City station. If you want to read more about this possibility, click here.

Serra Bowl - Rest in Peace, My Final Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Akit) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Just yesterday (Sunday, April 15th), was Serra Bowl's last day of service to the community. It was a place for people to go bowling, drink beer, sing karaoke, have a meal, celebrate birthdays, and play in a league.

Now, Serra Bowl is permanently closed. Things are silent, the parking lot empty, and now the lanes will have to be taken out and the place emptied in not a lot of time.

I'm going to share some last thoughts about Serra Bowl. Some of it is good memories, and some I have some questions about:

The best memories...
For me, Serra Bowl has been here since I was a little kid, bowling with friends with the air blown bumpers in the gutters. I started bowling again just months ago when SF State started their first staff & faculty league, and while it was just monthly league games, it brought a lot of my co-workers closer together, and allowed me to find a physical activity that was both fun and challenging.

Sure, I hit a bunch of gutter balls and accidentally rolled my ball into the gate, but looking at the environment, it showed a lot of benefits, especially the kids. It's nice to see the kids having so much fun with their families, whether it be playing the latest video games, having a pizza party, or just rolling the ball down the bumper lanes. The alley kept the kids out of trouble, and since it's so easy to access via BART and Samtrans, even people without a car can go bowling.

There was always ample parking all the time (except when the carnival was here), a feature that even the Classic Bowling Center can't replicate. The prices was fair and the staff was always helpful. And I'll always remember getting my first custom drilled bowling ball after getting lessons.

Questions and Doubts
Sometimes, I wonder why the lanes had to close. There's not been much information told to us patrons about what's going on, only a bunch of rumors. What I do know is the 99 year old landlord that lives next door in the brown house, did not want to renew Serra Bowl's 50 year lease. Even the daughter of the landlord stated it's basically time for the alley to go, and there's no clue on what's going to happen next to the piece of land.

Some have said (as rumor) that it's about the money; Serra Bowl was definitely profitable, even with the decline in alleys and bowlers, but some said the landlord wanted double the monthly rent, from $20,000 a month to $40,000. Others have said the landlord and the owners of Serra hated each other and once the lease was up, it was the end of the alley.

Nobody really knows what happened behind the scenes or why the month notice of the closure. It made the organizers of our league scramble to make arrangements for our May [monthly] game, and was fortunate to have the management let us play just last week.

The rally that got no attention
Serra hosted a community rally and there was a nice crowd that showed-up to hold signs and chant to save the alley, but we didn't get much attention. Channel 2 was the only station that stayed around for a little while to tape the rally, and just a few local bloggers passed the word around. If we had some more media attention to this, I think it would be a better influence in renewing the lease.

Also, the rally was contained in the parking lot, including the marching. Serra's parking lot is pretty secluded and with that, you don't see a lot of cars pass by to take a look at the rally. A handful of us thought it was better to hold our signs, including my "Honk to Save Serra Bowl" sign at the nearest major intersection (which is also a freeway off-ramp), and nearly every car and truck passing by blew their horns in great support. However, a manager of the alley didn't like the idea, calling it a "liability" and told us to go back to the secluded parking lot for the rally. If they allowed us to stay near the intersection and on the sidewalk, hundreds of cars would have honked in support and spread the word of the bowling center's demise. I've learned that when you want to fight to save something, you rattle the cage as much as you can and gain the support of the people; shunning us for asking people to honk in support was a big downer; it was like hardly anyone knew Serra was to close, other than the regulars of the alley.

I wonder, how many people who attended the carnival at Serra Bowl's parking lot even knew the alley was going to close? I'd bet, not that much; although, I did get a high number of hits on my blog mentioning about the carnival and Serra's upcoming closure because (1) nobody advertised it online, and (2) my blog was the top search result when people searched for the carnival.

Where to bowl now?
Serra's closure means an influx of bowlers going to other alleys, such as Classic and Brentwood. Brentwood is planning to open a new bowling center in the future, but for now, what's is around is what Serra's patrons can use.

I know new alleys just opened in the Mission and across from AT&T Park, but those don't cater to Serra's clientele. For example, the new Lucky Strike alley across from the ballpark has a strict dress code, fancy food, a dozen lanes, and very expensive hourly lane rental rates; Serra doesn't have a dress code (as long as you are not butt naked), has simple food and snacks, 44 lanes, and hourly lane rentals starting at no more than $26 an hour. The Bay Area is an expensive place to live in, we don't have the money to go to these fancy bowling alleys, we just want some place that's simple and casual.

Lastly
Losing another alley is another red X on our list of surviving bowling alleys. Thanks for all the great memories and smiles you brought to everyone, Serra Bowl. Rest in peace.

Sunday Streets Changes Route, Still Forces Muni's 18-46th Avenue to take 51-Block Detour

noreply@blogger.com (Akit) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 22:31:00 +0000

Sunday Streets in Golden Gate Park and the length of the Upper Great Highway is happening this Sunday, and hopefully the weather will be cooperative.

But once again, Sunday Streets organizers are forcing Muni to waste time and extra gas for one of my favorite lines, the 18-46th Avenue.

Why? The 18 line must cross through Sunday Streets at Great Highway in order to make it to the opposite side of Golden Gate Park. But if the Sunday Streets organizers don’t allow the line to cut through the event’s route, the bus line is forced to take a 51 block (10-15 minute) detour via 25th & Fulton (northern side) and 19th Avenue & Lincoln (southern side).

Regular route of the 18:

View Larger Map

Re-route due to Sunday Streets:

View Larger Map

When I saw the Sunday Streets map for this Sunday’s event (PDF document), they made an event route modification to not use Great Highway between Lincoln & Fulton, and I felt this was a success from my previous blog entry complaining about the issue with the 18 line. The new route map only cuts through one short city block from Lower Great Highway & Lincoln to Upper Great Highway & Lincoln (less than 500 feet), which would make it possible for the 18 bus to make a minor cut through the event route.

View Larger Map

But the old Sunday Streets route (below) made it impossible for the 18 line to get through because it took a huge chunk (half a mile) of the Great Highway (from JFK drive to Lincoln).

View Larger Map

Muni hasn’t confirmed a re-route for the 18, but Sunday Streets believes the 51 block re-route will be in effect. I ask Sunday Streets and Muni to allow the bus line to briefly cut through the new Sunday Streets route so it doesn’t drastically effect their on-time schedule and wasting the taxpayer’s gasoline for a totally wasteful 51 block reroute.

If the 44 line can cut through the Golden Gate Park road shutdown every Sunday to go north & south, why can’t the 18 also get an exception for this event?

Happy Sendoff for Serra Bowl's Last Days - A Carnival!

noreply@blogger.com (Akit) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 19:14:00 +0000

Update (4/16/12): Serra Bowl is now closed. Read my blog entry about my last thoughts about the bowling center.

Original blog entry:
In one week, Serra Bowl will close its doors on April 15th, and there's a lot of great memories for everyone that's been there. For me, it's being with my co-workers on the weekend to practice our techniques, and to compete with fellow SF State staff & faculty for the first ever league.

If Serra Bowl closed with no celebration of its existence, everyone would have sad memories and frowns on their faces. But something special is coming on their days of operation...

A carnival will be at Serra Bowl's parking lot from Thursday, April 12th to Sunday, April 15th! Food, games, and rides; a nice way to say goodbye to Serra (and taunt the landlord living right next door).

I'm not exactly sure how big this event will be and how it will have an impact on parking, consider taking BART to Colma and walk to the alley for it's final days. If you want to bowl on Serra's last days of service, I'd suggest making a reservation on their website to guarantee a lane.

Updates:
KPIX (Channel 5) News did a live report about the alley closing down. You can hear me yell "strike strike!" at 2:48 in the video, but I was watching the TV in the alley and there's always a live vs. TV delay.

Also, I am suspecting the carnival was not Serra Bowl's idea. Someone informed me the folks at the alley doesn't even know the operating hours of it. Also, there's a security guard at the parking lot entrance of the alley asking drivers if they are going bowling or the carnival; if you say carnival, the guard will tell you to park somewhere else.

Baby Stroller Policy on Muni - No Bulky & Unfoldable Strollers

noreply@blogger.com (Akit) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 17:02:00 +0000

First of all, happy Friday to everyone on this gorgeous day here in San Francisco. I hope your Easter weekend will go well.

A person on Twitter asked for my views on the possible change in the baby stroller policy for Muni:

@AgentAkit I'd love to see your response to this sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/04/04/2-s…
— Dori (@creativecstasy) April 6, 2012

Currently, drivers have the discretion to allow or not allow strollers on their vehicles, and when a passenger is denied boarding, that has created some frustration.

Current policy requires the child to be removed from the stroller and for the stroller to be folded-up. But with the new bigger, strollers that don't fold, and ones that do but takes up too much space, it seems drivers are booting more families from Muni vehicles on a more frequent basis.

Two city Supervisors believes this problem is discouraging families to ride public transit, therefore the decline in the number of children in our city.

What do I think about this?
I don’t agree with a universal city policy that a driver has to enforce, I believe independent judgment by the driver is the best policy because it’s the operators that have the ultimate responsibility to make sure all passengers are safe.

There’s multiple concerns with allowing strollers to ride Muni:

Safety of the baby or toddler in the stroller. Strollers may move during motion of the vehicle, therefore if a driver has to slam their brake, the baby could fly out of the stroller.
Some of you may be thinking, why not give them the wheelchair space? That’s a bad idea because that space is reserved for a wheelchair passenger, and those wheelchair areas take up three or four seats for passengers; should a stroller get the wheelchair spot? No because it takes up extra seats.
Wheelchairs do have a designated spot by federal law, and all buses have straps to secure the wheelchair, but while Muni does not regularly do it, other agencies do as policy to secure both wheels with special hooks attached to the floor, have the wheelchair brakes locked in, and a seat belt around their waist. Strollers don’t have the ability because the seat belt might go around their neck, and the hooks on the ground may not be able to safely secure the stroller.
Wheelchair lifts and ramps for streetcars are definitely not for strollers, they are for people who are disabled or have limited mobility.

My biggest concern:
The “SUV” carriages we see with the larger rubber wheels and bigger frames takes up too much space on Muni and removes precious aisle space for those who needs to stand or pass by to board/exit the vehicle. Ones that can’t fold takes up too much space and should be banned, but even the ones that can fold and still take a huge amount of bulk should be banned too.

As a courtesy to passengers, it’s discouraged to bring huge bulky items on Muni (for the exception of medical devices like wheelchairs, and walkers). You know what I’m talking about, garbage bags full of cans, and suitcases. If you want to transport bulky items, call a taxi or drive.

The exception:
I don’t have a concern for strollers that fold and takes a minimal amount of space because they fold up so compactly, similar to carrying a poster tube.

Photo credits:
First photo by Flickr user: Paul Barter, using a Creative Commons License.
Second photo by Flickr user: 'andynash,' using a Creative Commons License.

Would You Support Sunday Meter Enforcement?

noreply@blogger.com (Akit) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 23:06:00 +0000

Parking meters in San Francisco. Yeah, you know those meters, the ones that a quarter only gives you eight measly minutes and you always have to keep a fat roll of quarters in your car. Or for you suckers who parks in downtown or those new “smart” meters, you get much less time for that 25 cents.

But if you are familiar with what’s going on now, this could be the moment when you’ll jump out of your chair and cheer or get really pissed.

Would you support Sunday meter enforcement?

It’s a difficult decision for the city to make. In one point of view, no meter enforcement on Sunday has been a tradition in our city, except around Fisherman’s Wharf where the Port of SF loves tourist pocket change 7-days a week, including holidays. In another point of view, the SFMTA is broke and needs money, and a bunch of churches are against the idea.

Here’s my thoughts about it. I’m really undecided if I would support it or not:

In support of Sunday meters:
Parking in popular neighborhoods is so bad on Sundays, you literally have to circle the block several times until you get lucky to score a parking space. Have you ever tried parking on Irving Street between 19th and 26th Avenues? It’s pure hell on Sundays; you have to make a choice, either park there before 9AM and do your shopping, or take a risk during the rest of the day to get parking while vultures are double parking just waiting several minutes for some car to back-out. At least with meter enforcement, cars keep going in and out of parking stalls all day long and that means a better shot for people to get their business done; this also means that businesses can get more brisk business on Sundays, instead of cars parked in a stall for more than a few hours.

Not in support:
Why is the SFMTA broke? Because the system is broken and their hairbrained ideas suck. We shouldn’t pay for the meters just to feed the wallets of SFMTA employees. It’s the same as raising parking ticket penalties, the MTA thinks it’s a good way to raise more money to fix their bloody red budget. If the agency stopped wasting money on stupid projects, such as the Rose Pak (Central) Subway, and giving out free Muni rides to all of SF’s youth, maybe this agency can stop leaching off our wallets. The more the SFMTA wants to take more money from our wallets, the citizens will get their revenge on election day with ballot measures to kick the agency’s ass.

It’s really a tough choice to make; break tradition to make more money and keep cars moving, or continue to maintain tradition. I’d support Sunday meters if the SFMTA can make an effort to provide improved public transit choices, like running limited bus lines like the 38L on Sundays.

Muni to do All-Door Boarding? The Good and Bad

noreply@blogger.com (Akit) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Late Friday, Streetsblog SF presented a report about Muni changing to all-door boarding starting July 1st for the entire transit system. This would expand beyond the existing metro system's policies and would be the first in North America to establish such a major program.

But as you all know, Akit isn't here to stand on the sidelines and cheer, he's got his own thoughts on this idea. If you are reading this blog entry, what else would you expect from this blogger?

Perks of all-door boarding...

We all know the agency's buses are slow; it shouldn't take 45 minutes to go end to end on the 38L-Geary Limited, but that's what happens all the time. We all know Muni's average speed is a sluggish 8 MPH, in fact, you can probably ride a bike and make it to your destination faster.
In theory, if we go with all-door boarding, passengers don't need to flood the front door of buses and wait in line to either pay in cash or tag their Clipper card. That should be able to reduce the time for boarding and encourage more passengers to spread out on the buses where many bunch-up in the front half and refuse to go to the rear.
More people want a Clipper card to pay for their rides? Why not enjoy the benefit of tagging your Clipper card to enter a different door?

But I do have my concerns...

More Fare Evasion
This has to be the riskiest thing Muni will have to face. The honor system is not exactly the greatest idea in our city. When I ride the 38-Geary and see people boarding through the rear door, hardly anyone is tagging their Clipper card, or doing the "flash their pass/transfer" at the driver who isn't even paying attention to their rear mirror; and let's remember, this is happening today, before the new policy is in place!

Also, with the possible plan to allow all of SF's youth to ride free (in which, I hate the idea), and that will cause even more turmoil. Youth could argue to inspectors and police: "why do I need to tag my Clipper card's free pass when you already allow all-door boarding?" If inspectors or cops decides to write a ticket to a person under 18, that's a trip down to the Juvenile Justice Center as per state law; that means backing up the already busy juvenile court system.

I can understand Muni has card readers on their back doors, but only on one side. If a passenger boards the opposite side, they'd have to do the wrestling clothesline move to validate their Clipper card. Even on the metro lines, passengers complain there are too few card readers and passengers boarding a crowded train will have to get through a layer of people just to validate their card.

Passenger Courtesy
Remember riding BART and you always let passengers exit first, and then you board? On Muni... HA! The Muni metro at Powell Street station is a perfect example of seeing old Chinese ladies shoving their way onto an outbound K-Ingleside train while dozens of other passengers are trying to exit FIRST.

Even for me, I got off jury duty and rode the 8X to downtown, and I was about to exit when a Chinese lady decided to board the rear door illegally and sandwiched me into the stairwell's handrail just so she can board first.

If Muni wants to do this, they need to teach passengers some respect. Let people exit first, then board the rear door. If you want to board first while I'm exiting, I don't mind blocking the doorway until you get the hell out of my way.

Smaller & Lesser Known Lines
All-door boarding is a good option for major bus lines and ones heavily used by the public. All the 38 Geary lines is a perfect example because 54,000 people ride the Geary lines on a single weekday at approximately a 75% on-time rate (stats from SF Examiner). By improving boarding times, the Geary lines can increase their on-time rate even higher, or if very successful, adjust their time schedules.

But smaller lines like the 39-Coit, 18-46th Avenue, 17-Parkmerced, 3-Jackson, and a ton more doesn't need all-door boarding. If you think about it, if there's only a few passengers waiting at a bus stop, why not just let them board the front door? What if there was just one passenger? Why waste time and let them board the rear when the front door should be the primary way?

Fare Inspectors
If Muni plans to expand all-door, they need more fare inspectors.

I can understand, if all-door expands to only major lines, hiring extra inspector teams to conduct inspections won't be so bad because they can still concentrate on the metro lines and the lines added to all-door boarding. Surely, they can still inspect the lines without all-door as surprise inspections just to keep people in check with the rules.

If Muni decides to expand to the smaller lines, what a waste of resources it will be. If all-door boarding was on the 17-Parkmerced, I'd bet fare evasion would jump because fare inspectors would hardly ever do any fare checks, and those entering the back door could have a transfer that's fake, expired, or just nothing at all, and the driver would just assume the passenger is A-OK. The larger the number of all-door boarding lines, the more inspectors will be needed to keep passengers in check with obeying the honor policy. Or even worse, forcing inspectors to blanket the whole city to do fare checks on every single line of Muni to make sure of compliance of boarding the rear doors.

What's easier is the smaller lines stick to regular policy, board the front doors only, and exit doors are just exit doors. The driver has full control to make sure every person who enters the front door has paid their fare, used a valid Clipper card, or has shown a paper transfer. Drivers are defacto fare inspectors with authority to halt a passenger who has an expired transfer or something else going wrong, so why hire tons more inspectors or thin out the inspector teams to cover the whole city, when an operator can do themselves?

F-Market
The F-Market is a tourist line and truly needs to stick with front door boarding. I'd say about 85% of visitors pay for the F-Market in cash, so by allowing rear-door boarding, that will say to tourists, "hey, my streetcar is free!" Very few passengers board with a Clipper card, so front door boarding needs to stay to make sure they collect the revenue to help fund the agency.

If Muni wants all-door boarding for the F-Market, they need ticket machines. Put them at all the major stops so that it reduces dwell time for the vehicles (at the Ferry Building, it can take five minutes for everyone to board and pay cash). Muni could also consider having official ticket sellers at major stops during peak periods (weekends, Fleet Week, holidays, summer time) to encourage faster boarding. Lastly, Muni could consider bringing back the conductors that used to be on the streetcar lines many decades ago to check tickets and force new passengers to pay their fare.

All these suggestions for the F-Market are expensive, but it reduces the risk of fare evasion. If it was up to me, I'd stick with front door boarding only as a cost effective measure. Plus, doing fare inspections on tourists would be torment on the inspectors, from people with various language barriers, and international visitors won't even pay-off the citation because will Muni really chase them for a $100 ticket if they are in France?

If Akit Ran Muni...
If I was the king of Muni, here's what I'd do about this topic:

Only implement on the major and most heavily used bus lines.
Implement at all major stops, even for less popular routes where there's a lot of passengers waiting to board (e.g. SF State curb stops on 19th/Holloway).
Do not allow all-door on smaller bus lines and the F-Market.
Add pre-purchase ticketing machines at popular stops to encourage faster boarding.
Educate passengers early on about the rules and courtesy to other passengers.
Change the attitude of passengers about all-door boarding by discouraging fare evasion (does hypnosis work?).
Change the penalty structure; instead of a $100 fine, add an incentive to pay within three weeks and it's cut to $50; youth who violate are still remanded to the juvenile court system as I strongly believe youth crime is the path towards future crimes (even the city says so).

Top 30 Ways You Know You're a Real San Franciscan

noreply@blogger.com (Akit) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 19:00:00 +0000

SFGate did a list with their staffers of their ways people know if they area a "real San Franciscan." Some of them are lame, like Chinese New Year is not a federal holiday (DUH!); so I thought it's time to generate my own list.

You know you're a real San Franciscan if you...

Hate the 30 MPH speed limit on 19th Avenue, and prefers to drive the older, faster speed limit.
Move all the way to the back of the F-Market where there's ample standing room, and the tourists stay in the front half of the train.
Board Muni like a boss and tag that Clipper card, while others pay in cash.
Didn't give a damn about the Occupy encampment, and the daily Falun Gong protests at Portsmouth Square and the Chinese embassy.
Opened a window on a Muni bus on a cold day because the operator blasted the heat.
Used the city's public self-cleaning bathrooms once, and never again.
Hate local politicians, especially those who robocall you on random occasions (e.g. PHIL TING).
Had to drive around the block five times to get a parking space on Irving Street on a mid-Sunday afternoon.
Still remember the good ol' days of KFRC on 99.7.
(For guys) Taking a piss in the trough urinal at Candlestick.
Had to go to the inconvenient criminal courthouse on Bryant for jury duty.
Attended either City College or SF State.
Patronize in Daly City as a middle finger gesture to SF for high sales taxes, plastic and styrofoam ban, and outrageous gas prices.
Willing to go all the way across the city for your favorite food/snack, even though there's a similar place not far from your home.
Knows how to score two hours of free parking at Pier 39.
Can catch the Cable Car without waiting in the long line at the Powell turnaround.
Earned a 'Croix de Candlestick' button for surviving the ass freezing cold at Candlestick.
Survived attending an entire Board of Supervisors meeting.
Nearly got hit by a car when crossing the street.
Seen Frank Chu (San Francisco's favorite protester) at a major event.
Never want to leave SF, no matter what the newspaper statistics say.
You know when free days are at the museums. (from my friend Brandi)
Willing to shop outside the city borders because they have all the big box stores.
Know which bums to avoid and the ones that are not so bad (from my friend Lena).
Hate anyone that says "San Fran" (from Lena). My frustration is towards "Frisco."
An earthquake awakens you, then you go right back to sleep.
Remember watching movies at the defunct Coronet and Alexandria.
Got caught in a traffic jam due to Critical Mass.
Slammed the brakes at a red light camera intersection.
You blame the mayor for everything.

I welcome your suggestions, just leave a comment!

Free Muni Rides for SF's Youth is a Terrible Idea

noreply@blogger.com (Akit) — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:55:00 +0000

In an editorial from the SF Chronicle, they are supporting the proposal to allow San Francisco's youth to be allowed to ride Muni for free. They feel it will make it easier for students to get to school, reduce congestion, and saves money for the parents who dishes out the $21 monthly pass.

I personally think it's a horrible idea.

There's a lot of problems that underlines the notion of being "free" to our city's youth:

One of the major problems is just the cost of running such a program. The Chronicle estimates the cost to be at least $4 million to as high as $7.9 million (let's just say eight). That's a lot of money for an agency that's been bleeding in the red ever since Nat Ford ruined the agency and took a nice 300K+ "up yours" package when he was fired. Four million, if properly spent, can be used for something better for EVERYONE, and not just for the kids.

A second problem is about Clipper cards. A lot of you know about my expertise in the Clipper program, and I can tell you, this will be a big problem to give out free passes on cards. Here's three key problems:

If the pass is implemented and they impose time restrictions or can't be used on certain days, the Clipper system cannot handle these types of restrictions. I forgot where I found that information, but I know that the pass system has to work 24-7, or the MTC and/or Muni will have to fork over a ton of money to modify the Clipper card software to handle that.
If Muni is permitted to do time restrictions, there will be a lot of time dedicated to being flexible to those students who have school sanctioned activities; say if the pass is invalid after 4PM and their football team practice goes until 6PM, there will be a lot of paperwork and exceptions made for the changes to happen. If a student goes to night school, then what's the restrictions for that? When the pass get's shut off, they'll argue with the driver about validity, and that they can't afford to pay the fare or add e-cash to their card; this means more phone calls with Clipper customer service.
One existing problem that will turn worse is the youth Clipper cards looks exactly like an adult Clipper card. Without a fare inspector's card reader, a bus driver cannot identify if the card is for a youth or adult. This means if a parent regularly drives their student to school or the student can easily walk to school, an adult family member could use the youth's card to score free rides on Muni until an inspector catches them. Muni's inspectors regularly targets the metro lines, so odds of getting caught on a bus is a long shot. The ways Muni can fix that is to make the card reader emit a different sound for youth cards, integrate their school ID with Clipper, or put a photo on the card. These are all expensive options, especially adding a photo because if AC Transit learned a lesson, it took a long time to get all the area's youth to get all their photos taken and make custom cards.

One bigger concern I have is conduct. Here's my two big issues:

Remember the "Spare the Air" program gave out free transit rides for everyone? It was a success for keeping the air cleaner and more people taking public transit, but it caused a bunch of other problems from transit agencies. People decided to take public transit to just get off at the next stop just because it was "free," this meant delays on transit lines because people are too lazy to just walk to the next stop. For BART, they hated it; youth passengers caused mayhem on the system and turned into a roving hangout (including homeless folks); it reached such a boiling point that BART decided at the next future "Spare the Air" to make people pay for their rides.
If Muni gives rides for "free" to the youth, it just lets them barge through the back door of buses and steal the seats from the rest of the honest people who boards through the front door.

Lastly, San Francisco's youth should be lucky they are paying drastically less for public transit. Here's a comparison of single ride fares for major agencies in the Bay Area:

Muni: $2 adult, $0.75 youth (62.5% discount) with free transfer.
Samtrans: $2 adult, $1.25 youth (37.5% discount) with no transfer.
VTA: $2 adult, $1.75 youth (12.5% discount) with no transfer.
AC Transit: $2.10 adult, $1.05 youth (50% discount) with additional $0.25 for one ride transfer.

The city has no obligation to give discounts to youth, but in the name of tradition, they do. The law states that only seniors, people with disabilities, or medicare card are eligible for a discount fare.

For you youth advocates, be lucky Muni gives the steepest discount AND a free 90 minute transfer. Nothing is free; especially when Muni is already broke.

Serra Bowl Closes its Doors on April 15th (Confirmed)

noreply@blogger.com (Akit) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 15:39:00 +0000

It is with sad news that I mention this to my readership and the general public:

Serra Bowl has confirmed late yesterday evening, they will close its doors on April 15, 2012.

For the last 48 hours, it was more of a rumor than fact, until the alley confirmed it on their Facebook page late last night. The posting received a high number of passionate responses from people, those whom have fond memories, others worried about what their bowling league will do, and others wondering what to do next.

From what they have said, they have lost their lease to the facility and due to that, is forced to close its doors on April 15th. For 51 years, the lanes of Serra has provided fun and activity to people of all ages, and will be sadly missed. It has been an icon of Daly City ever since I was a kid having fun with bumper bowling and having birthday parties there.

For me, bowling has been a brand new hobby, but I've only started bowling more frequently in the past month in preparation for the SF State faculty & staff league (a private, monthly league). I've invested my time and money into getting great lessons, playing with my co-workers for a few hours at a time, getting a new custom drilled ball, and buying other essential items. It's sad to see the alley go, and the organizers of the league will have to find an alternate location for our final game of the season in May (especially when my team is up against our ultimate rivals).

Serra Bowl has allowed me to have some more fun and get some much needed physical activity; for every hour I play, I burn off about 225 calories; and with their great bowling rates on Sunday mornings, I'm worried of where else am I going to play for a good price.

When Japantown Bowl closed down, it was a sad day for the Japantown community and its regular bowlers; instead, it's replaced with a controversial condominium facility. The community wanted to buy the lanes, but sadly could not succeed. I'm hopeful a person or a group of people can buy the lease and revive Serra Bowl for future generations to come.

--------------------

I want to suggest something for all bowling lovers: On its last day of service at Serra, everyone should come for one big farewell celebration; bowl with friends, take up every lane, buy drinks, food, play video games, just everything.

Just like those "cash mobs" where people organize a certain time to go and shop to help a fellow small business, Serra and their employees should leave in style and with a smile on their face knowing that a lot of people appreciate what they've contributed to the community.

Pro Tip: Always Tag Your Clipper Card on Muni (Regardless if a Pass or Not)

noreply@blogger.com (Akit) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

I've likely said it a bunch of times on my blog, so let's wipe off the dust and take the cobwebs off and remind everyone...

Don't forget to tag your Clipper card on Muni!

Over the past couple of weeks, some news stories came up about people not tagging their Clipper card and either getting hassled by a fare inspector or getting a fat $100 ticket.

Several hours ago, Muni Diaries heard from the folks at Muni that anyone with a monthly pass isn't required to tag their card.

And at KRON Channel 4, Stanley Roberts (a.k.a. the guy who filmed the infamous elmo shirt rant) did a couple of video segments of fare evaders getting caught for not paying their Muni fare with Clipper and getting a big $100 ticket. (First video on top of blog entry, and second video on bottom of entry).

We all should know by now, fare evasion is a bad thing to do, and sets a bad example to the rest of the public ("hey, monkey see, monkey do!"). I've mentioned it a few times back when the brand new Muni fare gates had a "glitch" in which people could use their hand to open the gates and gain free entry.

For those of you paying for Muni with the blue card using e-cash or an electronic token ridebook, tagging is mandatory every time you board. Don't do it, you'll eventually get caught.

Pro tip #1: Always tag your card correctly. Getting the error tone means you card is NOT VALIDATED! Don't swipe, hold and wait for confirmation.

But as Muni Diaries mentioned, what about monthly passes? Good point. Muni's policy is not to cite people, but the fare inspector has to sift through the data on your card to find out if you have a pass or not; and that means wasted time.

But this is only for the metro service. Not tagging on a bus or F-Market streetcar could get likely in trouble with the operator as passengers are supposed to board the front door and either pay cash, show the transfer, or tag their Clipper card.

Even then, tagging your card is highly encouraged; not just to avoid wasting time with an inspector, but it also helps Muni gather ridership data. When they do an assessment, they have hard proof to the state and federal government that the money they are receiving is not enough based on the ridership numbers.

They can also use the data to find out about usage patterns; say if at 9PM at night, there's a high volume of tagging on the 1-California line, that could indicate to Muni that an extra bus might be needed to run. But it could run negatively to help support reductions of service for a line as well.

Pro tip #2: If the metro train's card reader is not functioning, go to the other half of the car; the "A" car's Clipper card readers are independent from the "B" car's.

So always remember, tag your Clipper card or face the wrath of a notorious fare inspector...

Have a great Wednesday!

Updates: Clipper Card Acceptance on Ferries & Napa-Solano, Union City, & Marin Buses

noreply@blogger.com (Akit) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Greetings everyone! Yes, I'm alive after not blogging as regularly as I should. Things have been quite busy in my personal life for the past few weeks, from going on a diet to joining a bowling league and practicing at the lanes with my co-workers.

Let's get on with Clipper card news:

The MTC's Operations Committee met on Friday, February 17th to discuss new matters about Clipper.

Next Phase of Clipper
Clipper's next step is to expand into the smaller transit agencies. In their minutes from their previous meeting, it is expected the Bay Area ferries will be joining the Clipper card family as early as April 2012. The month mentioned did not say if there's any testing time or exactly when it will be available for public use.

The next transit agencies to join Clipper will be the Napa-Solano group, Union City Transit, and Marin Transit. They were chosen because of the limited amount of Clipper equipment remaining in their arsenal, and their connectivity to other participating agencies using Clipper; for example, Union City Transit connects to BART and AC Transit, two major companies part of the Clipper consortium. Clipper expects equipment to be installed in the next 8-9 months, and should be ready for public use by March or April 2013.

In other Clipper card news
The committee is seeking to approve a contract amendment of $30,000 to the contractors running the Embarcadero station's Clipper card kiosk (this would raise their annual contract to $1,087,100). Statistically, that particular location is the top seller of Clipper card value (e-cash), and with their secondary location at the Ferry Building, has sold over 26,000 new Clipper cards (more than half are youth & senior cards), and replaced over 9,000 inoperable cards. The MTC is considering to give them more money to increase their staffing levels and expand their service hours.

Lastly, Clipper is asking the MTC to approve some changes to the operating rules of Clipper. It's a huge document to read over and I don't know exactly what they are changing. One interesting and particular rule in the operating rules is on page 27 about fees: Clipper can charge a passenger a $5 fee for every second failed Autoload funding source when it is declined.

Akit's Opinions
I think it's going to take some time for new agencies to join the Clipper consortium. You are at least looking at one year just to get the next fleet of buses up and running; as for the ferries, I'd expect them to get ready for public usage by around late Summer or early Fall 2012.

For the 30K additional to run the customer service kiosks with more service hours is a good thing. The lines themselves are long and they are quite popular for the incompetent people who doesn't realize a good number of the kiosk's functions can be done quickly at a self-service machine just feet away from the kiosk.

50 Years of Tony Bennett's "I Left My Heart in San Francisco"

noreply@blogger.com (Akit) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:44:00 +0000

Tony Bennett's legendary song about our city, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" will be played on many radio stations around San Francisco today at 12 Noon.

Can you actually believe it's been 50 years since it was first released? Even then, our city's favorite song, or for me, our unofficial city anthem is still played often around our city.

Did you actually know, I can sing the song pretty well? It's always a crowd pleaser when I go on a cruise and do some karaoke in front of a crowd. I even sing along when attending a home game and the SF Giants win the game just because it's our city's song.

I might rag on our city once in a while (especially Muni), but let's never forget about the song we love. So today, we pay tribute to a great song about our wonderful city.

Enjoy this Valentines Day!

Hacking a Clipper Card? Easy and Cheap Solutions to Protect Yourself

noreply@blogger.com (Akit) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

There's been some word around that someone was able to hack a Clipper card.

I know how to hack a Clipper card, just give me a saw.

Actually, it's the other type of hack, some person was able to find how to exploit the Clipper card by being able to somehow get through the encryption and obtain the data. In the worst case scenario, someone could be able to use that data to make clone cards and either make fake card balances and passes to sell, or steal one's information and make a clone card (similar to someone skimming a credit card's magnetic stripe).

Am I concerned? Sure I am, but I'm protected like an electronically tested condom (which reminds me, time to visit Costco for an economy pack).

There's no fear in this; odds are very low that someone will skim your Clipper card and ride Muni free for the rest of the month. Even then, stealing the info and e-cash balance and trying to get cash back is really difficult: You have to prove to Clipper customer service that you are the registered user of the card. Also, if Clipper knows your card is funded or partially funded with commuter benefits (even just one cent), they are not allowed to cancel the card's balance and mail you a check.

If you are just paranoid, get your tin foil hats and learn about this: There are products on the market that is able to shield your Clipper card from people skimming information. You could wrap it in tin foil, that's a cheap option. There are sleeves that people can use to slip their card in to protect it. But the problem with a tin foil or sleeve shield is that you will have to pull your Clipper card out every time when you want to scan it.

One solution I suggest is what is shown in the picture on this blog post. I use a badge holder. This one I have from Identity Stronghold works fine, and I also added a retractable reel to it so I can hook it to my belt. What makes it easy is you don't have to remove the card to scan, you just squeeze the top of the card to open it, scan the card, and un-squeeze to protect the card. I tried the holder with it protected/secured and Clipper card readers doesn't even know the card is there, but with a little squeeze, the card can be read.

So really folks, there's nothing to really fear. You don't need a replacement card if they come out with the newest generation of cards that are more secure. When more secure measures comes out, hackers always try to outsmart it. But with sleeve or badge holder that is shielded, there's no way to electronically pickpocket you.

Clipper Customer Service Desk - Long Waits & Faster Alternate Methods Nearby

noreply@blogger.com (Akit) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:20:00 +0000

On Saturday, I burned some time in downtown and stopped at the Embarcadero station to hop on the California Cable car. When I got to the top of the escalator at the mezzanine level, I noticed a huge line at the Clipper customer service desk.

I had to scratch my head at the huge line and said to myself, "dang, that's the line?"

I also quietly laughed because I just handled a purchase to my Clipper card in just under a minute, and it's only a few feet away from the booth.

The Clipper Customer Service Desk
They are used for customers who wants to add value and passes to their card, apply for youth and senior cards, have questions about Clipper, replacing lost/stolen cards, and fix any problems with their account.

I did notice a few with paperwork in hand to apply for specialized youth & senior Clipper cards, but a handful looked like they were in line to purchase their monthly transit passes since the new month is just a few days away.

For those of you purchasing passes or needing to add Clipper e-cash value, there's an easy way to do it... go to the self-service automated machines within the Embarcadero station! There's even a banner over the Muni ticketing machines and the third party sales booth behind the line describing what Clipper services they can do (the third party booth was closed that day).

The automated machines can do...

Muni - Purchase e-transit passes and e-ridebooks for ALL participating agencies, and add e-cash (minimum of $5). Accepts cash, credit cards, debit cards, and commuter benefit cards.

BART - Add Clipper e-cash only (minimum of 5 cents). Accepts cash, credit cards, debit cards, and commuter benefit cards.

If you carry transit benefit checks (vouchers), you still have to claim it at the customer service desk, or you can go upstairs to the Walgreens.

So, don't suffer in line if you need to buy a pass or add e-cash! All Muni underground stations can get you what you need (if only e-cash, use ANY BART station).

How BART Rips-off Tourists When Leaving SFO

noreply@blogger.com (Akit) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:00:00 +0000

BART's extension to SFO has been popular for travelers with decent prices that's less than a shuttle van and taxi, and gets passengers from the airport to downtown SF within 30 minutes. On the weekends, I notice the trains coming from SFO packed full of visitors and their luggage when I board the train at Daly City.

BART now offers visitors an option to pre-pay for their fare and pick-up their tickets at a counter nearby the main gates at SFO in terminal "G." The voucher page is a little hidden in the BART website, but once you find it, you click on the link and can buy the voucher online from a third-party official contracted vendor of BART.

You can purchase one of three options, a round-trip BART ticket from SFO to downtown SF stations, East Bay I (stations in East Bay, but closer to SFO), and East Bay II (stations furthest from SFO station).

Once you purchase the voucher, you print it and bring it to the nearby counter at the BART gates to claim it for BART tickets. The tickets will contain cash value similar to purchasing a ticket at a vending machine.

What's so bad about it?
It sounds simple, pre-pay and you get your tickets at a customer service counter.

Uh huh. How about the cost?

Here's a great example:
The printable voucher for a round-trip ride from SFO to a downtown SF station (Civic Center, Powell, Montgomery, and Embarcadero) costs $18. There's no service fees, print-at-home charges, etc. It's just $18.

But checking BART's fare table, a ride from SFO to a downtown station costs $8.10, so a round-trip ticket would cost $16.20.

This means, BART is ripping tourists and visitors off by taking an extra $1.20 in profit for the online voucher program.

Based on the website, there is no details if the $18 voucher purchased online will give the passenger a $18 BART ticket, or a ticket valued at $16.10, but either way, if a passenger is only riding BART to and from SFO, it's a definite rip-off to purchase the voucher.

Just remember visitors, BART ticketing machines accept credit cards too, so save that $1.80!

Transit Agencies in Napa & Solano Counties Next to Join Clipper

noreply@blogger.com (Akit) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Just a few days ago on Friday, January 13th, the Operations Committee of the MTC met to talk about their usual business, and specifically, spending money on Clipper.

Other than the agency spending money on preparing for VTA's full transition into Clipper, I'm going to stick to the big topic at hand, "Phase III" of Clipper.

As you may recall, Phase II of Clipper was to have all major transit agencies in the Bay Area join the Clipper consortium and it has been successfully done with card readers on every bus, train, and train/metro station in the Bay Area.

Phase III of Clipper is to expand the program into the smaller transit agencies. To make the expansion more efficient and cost effective, they have been broken-up into regions of where the transit services is provided. The regions are: East Bay, Napa-Solano, 101 Corridor, and Ferries.

The Ferries group is supposed to be the first, but there hasn't been any news of any new developments. One reason why the ferries will go first is because it requires fewer Clipper equipment (readers, add value machines) versus a single transit [bus] agency that requires extensive amounts of equipment and labor to be installed on every single bus.

Who Gets Clipper First for the Buses?
The MTC is proposing to the Operations Committee to pick the Napa-Solano region to be next with Clipper. The region covers the following agencies:

SolTrans
Fairfield-Suisun Transit
Napa VINE
Vacaville City Coach
Rio Vista

The MTC is also considering to install Clipper equipment to Union City Transit and Marin Transit.

The MTC has hit a big bump in the amount of Clipper equipment left in their inventory; ERG, the manufacturer of the Clipper card equipment, does not make any more of the equipment that is currently used on the buses of the major transit agencies. Either the MTC gets lucky to procure whatever is left from ERG in Australia or will need to look for new equipment.

The lack of equipment forced the MTC to choose the region that would best fit the remaining equipment in storage, therefore Napa-Solano is the proper choice. Depending on what is leftover, Union City and Marin Transit may also be added for installation; these two agencies are being treated differently because Union City Transit is an extension of AC Transit, and Marin Transit is an extension of Golden Gate Transit.

What About the Other Transit Agencies?
Since there's a lack of equipment in MTC's inventory to cover every single bus for the remaining agencies, they'll need to look elsewhere.

Cubic, the contractor for Clipper, will need to seek new equipment. As the report states, the newest generation of RFID transit fare equipment now includes real-time cellular communications, which means, rapid communications between the equipment and the Clipper network, and without the 5 day waiting period common with online and phone orders with the current technology operating on the major agencies.

The new equipment they are looking at is what's going to be used in Vancouver and Chicago this year when they roll-out their new farecard programs. MTC and Clipper plans to start piloting the new equipment this now until March at no cost to the MTC to see if it will work well with the current Clipper technology in use now.

If the MTC likes the new equipment, they'll likely make a proposal at the March or April Operations Committee meeting and provide the plans for the 101 Corridor and East Bay groups.

The "Caltrain Screwjob" - End of 8-Rides Means 15% to 25% Fare Hike

noreply@blogger.com (Akit) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 09:00:00 +0000

If you haven't read the news lately, Caltrain is proposing to do some changes to their fare structure.

Penalty for Paper Tickets
Essentially, it's going to a penalty on the people who buy paper tickets at their train stations. They are proposing passengers to pay an extra 25 cents per zone for one-way tickets, and 50 cents per zone for day passes. Another way of saying it, it's a 10% fare hike for paper ticket users.

However, Caltrain will not impose the additional fee on those who uses Clipper cards to pay for their rides (e-cash).

By operating on a different fare structure for cash vs. Clipper e-cash, it does cause one unique problem:

For those who rides more than two times in one day, Clipper e-cash does not give you a day pass; therefore if you ride three times with Clipper, you get charged three one-way rides.
At least with a paper day pass, you have to pay an extra 50 cent penalty per zone covered, but you get UNLIMITED rides within the zones covered.

End of 8-Rides
This is going to stir more controversy than the paper ticket hike.

I have argued the 8-ride system for Caltrain on Clipper is pretty much a stupid move, and I have suggested that all passengers who rides Caltrain using Clipper should get an across the board 15% discount on their train fares by paying for one-way rides with Clipper's universal e-cash purse.

Well, it didn't turn out the way I expected it.

Caltrain's proposal is to end 8-ride, therefore Clipper users can pay with e-cash for their single trip rides. But as mentioned from above, Caltrain's 25 cent per zone fee for paper ticket makes it sound like you will still receive a discount, but if you were to spend time and crunch the numbers, you are about to get very screwed over.

Caltrain's way of saying it on their website makes it sound cool the 8-rides will die a painful death, but you'll be paying more. Example:

A two zone 8-ride: $32.25
New Clipper only 2-zone one-way e-cash per ride: $4.75
Multiply new 2-zone Clipper one-way e-cash fare by eight: $38.
Divide 32.25 into 38, you get .849. A simple way of saying it, 8-ride passengers being converted to Clipper e-cash one way fares only will be paying for a 15% fare hike.
However, if an ex 8-rider uses Clipper, they won't pay the 25 cent per zone paper fee, but if the passenger switches completely to paper tickets only, it will be a 25% fare hike (15% hike for ending 8-ride, and 10% hike for the paper charge).

Akit's Opinion
Regarding the paper ticket fee (10% fare hike):
This begs the question, why hasn't Caltrain and Clipper devised a way to let people essentially 'earn' a day pass when they ride two one-way trips (a.k.a. "pass accumulator")? VTA is planning to do this in the near future where if a passenger rides their buses/trains a certain number of times, the rest of the rides for the remainder of the day is free.

Caltrain also has very few Clipper add value machines, they've only installed them in a few major stations. They refused to modify their paper ticket machines to handle the job, so now people will have to carefully monitor their Clipper e-cash balance, or consider autoload (which I don't recommend).

Regarding the end of 8-rides:
It's a screwjob for the 8-ride users as they lose their 15% off and pay the 'normal' cash fare like other Joes and Janes do today and when the proposal becomes reality. It's an even bigger screwjob for those who decides to skip Clipper completely and pay the paper ticket fare, therefore getting a 25% fare hike.

This ain't cool at all. They kicking their most loyal passengers in the butt, while their casual passengers get a break.

Caltrain's proposal is bad; whomever wrote it will sure get a lot of 8-riders angry. Here's how I would have handled it:

Follow how Golden Gate Transit did it. Instead of raising fares, kill the 8-rides and give all Clipper card passengers an across the board 15% discount on one-way e-cash fares; this will compensate for the end of 8-rides. This attracts more ridership as people who infrequently ride it will notice a 15% discount for them too.
Do not add 10% penalty for paper tickets.
Start doing a transition every six months until you meet the goal you established; either reduce the 15% to 10%, or all fare categories gets a hike of 25 or 50 cents per zone.

By doing the three steps, it makes it sound much better by easing the pain of a hike, but they way they proposed it, it's like getting kicked in the nuts, then kicked in the face seconds later.

The "Caltrain Screwjob"
If you are wondering why I called it the "Caltrain Screwjob," it's similar to professional wrestling's infamous "Montreal Screwjob." You can read about it here.

If you feel upset that you'll be paying a 15% to 25% fare hike, I encourage you to complain to Caltrain. Their e-mail is: changes@caltrain.com or for alternate methods, click here. Make sure to call these changes the "Caltrain Screwjob" so they know Akit encouraged you to contact them and you stand beside him.