San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency — Local services in San Francisco

As a tourist staying for a week, our family was looking for convenient affordable travel around the city. We purchased three Muni passes on-line and attempted to utilize the Muni app during our stay.

Pros: The Muni covers the use of the trolley and with our pass we were able to get on and off as much as we like. All the controllers we talked to were extremely helpful, courteous and made the trolley ride a memorable experience. The Muni also covers the street cars, a classic ride on a historic line, we found the drivers to be helpful and courteous. And of course the Muni covers the buses and for the most part, the drivers were helpful. We had to ask almost every time if the bus was going to where we needed to be and the drivers where able to point us in the right direction even if we weren't in the right direction.

Cons: MUNI app is HORRIBLE. You can resource your tickets, good. But you can't consistently keep the number of tickets you have as a multiple use. You need to constantly tap on the ticket, add each one in your party and choose multiple. Every time. At some point I stopped doing this, bus drivers waved us on as we had to show the e-tickets from the phone.

The apps works better on iPhone than the Pixel. The app is a huge battery drain when you use it, and if you are a visitor to the city with the need for mass transit, you will be using the app a lot. Draining the battery by mid day.

The bus stops are not clearly marked on the map in the muni app ( or google maps, iphone maps if that helps). It's literally a general location of the stops. You need to understand the map of SF first, all the roads and the North/South directions of the roads to use Muni. If you are a tourist you rely on the map to tell you that the stop is on the corner of X and Y. But it needs more detail, i.e. the stop is at the corner of X and Y, on Y street, not actually on the corner but on Y street on the left side going towards Z street. Take a good picture of what the corner looks like to find which stop to be at. Have the Muni stops/stations with LARGE, reflective wording on the stops. If you use the Muni app for stops at night, it is a huge challenge to find the stop, because they are hard to see and even harder to read what the stop represents ( BUS 8, 30 etc.). Too many times we are attempting to use the phone maps to find the general location of the stop, and the stop is so incognito we had to be on top of it to be sure that is the stop we need.

Create a loop in the city. Or a figure-eight loop. Most places you could walk to from the loop and color code it on all your maps. People could get on and stay on the loop taking them to all points of interest.

When you view plan a trip in the app, allow those trips to be saved. When you plan a trip in the app, allow the user to come out of the app but keep the destination route. We had to close the app to save battery and then when we opened it, and did from my destination to point of interest, the bus stop would change!

We found ourselves using uber more and more as the week went on, because using Muni was so frustrating. And when talking to the locals and drivers they agreed that using Muni can be frustrating. Find yourself a tourist paper map to help understand Muni in SF.

SF Transportation - Walk yourself over to Google and ask them to help you develop an app that...

On April 3, 2013 at about 10:56pm, the #19 Bus arrived at the bus stop. I ran to the bus as the last passenger boarded. I arrived to the bus in full view of the driver and past his front windshield to arrive at the door. After the last passenger stepped onto the bus, he immediately closed the door. As the door closed, I was at the door looking at the driver, for him to open the door. I was already a bit taken back that he even felt it necessary to close the door in the first place, when it was blatant he saw me running to the bus. I was at the bus door no more than 2 seconds after he closed the door. Instead of opening the door for me, he turned his head as to be looking at his side view mirror as to look for his opportunity to pull away from the curb and leave me. So I began to yell, "Hey!!!" to the bus driver and I began to knock on the door to alert him that I was there., although it was clear he knew I was there. For some reason, it seems to be an issue for some bus drivers to re-open the door for a passenger, when they've already closed the door. I've witnessed drivers who adamantly refuse to re-open the door after they've closed them. They just drive off. I don't know why some drivers do that. And when they do re-open the door for the passenger, it's clear the driver isn't happy about it.. I don't know if the drivers are just ready to end the route or what... I do respect the pressure driver's have to keep a timely schedule, but at the same time, bus drivers exist because people catch the bus...so I don't understand the spirit of leaving a passenger at the bus stop just because they closed the door already... But this was my experience. The driver ignored my yells and knocks on his door and he edged the bus into the street, hoping for an opportunity to drive away. Due to all the traffic, he didn't have the space to leave, cars kept driving along side of the bus.. With the driver's determination to leave me, he again began edging the bus towards the street. A car honked at him because he was about to hit his car...simply, the driver didn't have the right away to pull away from the curb yet.. And there I am, knocking and yelling for the driver to not leave me... At this time, the bus was pulled away from the curb, so I'm literally in the street, at the door of the bus, in total disbelief that the driver was being so rude to me and trying to leave me. It just didn't make sense to me. Finally, the driver realized he was not going to be able drive off and leave me, as he planned..there was just too much traffic for him to drive away... so it became more and more uncomfortable for him to just sit there trying to ignore me......so he finally realized he should just go ahead and open the door for me... and I boarded the bus.. to make a longer story short, he got angry when I asked for his I.D. number so I can make a complaint. Then he yelled at me that I had no reason to complain because he allowed me on the bus...Yes, out of a forced situation the driver allowed me to board...but it wasn't out of normal customer service spirit...he simply couldn't leave like he planned... So he saw nothing wrong with that incident. Well I saw rude, insensitive, embarrassment, inappropriate conduct, and total un-professionalism from that...

SFMTA is not only the spot where we pay our tickets! It's also the agency responsible for getting people around the city, including those who visit the city. Parking can be horrific in and around the city and thinking you can park a vehicle illegally and still avoid a ticket is completely foolish and yes they are $$$. I believe its done to deter violators and not a punitive measure. There are a number of lots you can just as easily park in for as little as $8 per hour. Tickets can easily cost 5 times that amount and failure to pay within the time allotted can easily double. It's simply not worth it. Broken meters are not an excuse to park free of charge and those meters can be reported to the City's 3-1-1 operators from your cel,l phone. At the present time, you can catch a bus almost every 10 mins from anywhere in the city. In a hurry? Consider using a taxi. Most can be flagged down and drivers for the most part are friendly and courteous. But for those utiliing bus service remember to keep "proof of fare payment" at all times in your possession. Clipper Cards work bus. At the present time face mask are required on all muni buses and light rails. Transit operators will gladly provide assistance in getting you to your destinations. Single Ride - Adult (ages 19-64). Adult single ride fare on Muni vehicles, good for 120 minutes of travel. MuniMobile app $2.50 Clipper® Card/App $2.50 Cash $3.00 Metro Ticket...