Our Fare Share

Thousands of people in San Francisco depend on Muni to get where they need to go. And the SFMTA depends on fare revenue to keep the system running and to keep it clean, safe and accessible. 

In this episode, we talk about fare compliance and enforcement on Muni. Revenue Operations Senior Manager Diana Hammons and Chief Strategy Officer Jonathan Rewers discuss why fares are important and how they fit into our overall budget. We then follow a team of transit fare inspectors as they work to make sure our riders are paying properly.

Transcript

MELISSA CULROSS, HOST: You can get all around San Francisco on Muni … which has been ranked among the best transit systems in the country. We’re very proud of that, and one of the things we depend on to keep the Muni going is fare revenue.

SFMTA REVENUE OPERATIONS SENIOR MANAGER DIANA HAMMONS: Transit plays an important role to so many people. Fares are an important part of that.

MELISSA: Welcome to Taken with Transportation, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s official podcast. I’m your host Melissa Culross, and in today’s episode we’re talking about Muni fares and fare compliance. We’re joined first by SFMTA Revenue Operations Senior Manager Diana Hammons who talks about our budget, overall, and where our funding comes from. Hammons says a portion is from the federal government and the state. Then there is our local revenue.

DIANA HAMMONS: We receive a fixed amount of money through the General Fund, the city’s budget. And outside of that, we are responsible for balancing our budget. We can’t go back to the Board of Supervisors or the Mayor’s Office and ask for more money. So, outside of the General Fund contribution, which was actually approved by the voters as a fixed percent, we have to balance our own budget and come up with the revenue to close that gap if there is one.

MELISSA: That money we come up with is what’s under our control. So where do fares come in? 

DIANA: Fare revenue actually accounts for almost a full quarter of the revenue that we have under our control, and that’s why it’s important to our budget. 

MELISSA: We know that everything seems to cost more these days, and as of January 1 of this year, so does riding Muni for many of our customers. But this is the first time in a while, Hammons says.

DIANA: We have not raised fares for Muni since July of 2019. And prior to that, it has been our policy as an agency to incrementally raise fares each year, consistent with the cost of living. Prices are going up, wages have gone up. But our fares have stayed the same since 2019. However, we did focus on those fares that are paid by Clipper, and we’re committed to leaving the cash fare at the same price. So, there’ll be no increase for cash-paying customers, only for those that are paying on Clipper or with monthly passes. 

MELISSA: Even though we do need to raise fares on occasion, and we specifically are keeping the cash fare the same in this recent fare increase, we don’t want the cost of riding Muni to be a barrier for anyone who needs to use the system. 

DIANA: We understand that transit is critical to so many people’s lives: getting to work, getting their children to school. That is why, when you look at Muni-the MTA, we have the most comprehensive free and reduced fare programs than any other transit agency in the United States. Whether it’s for seniors, people with disabilities… All youth ride free. That was expanded during the pandemic. So now, anyone 18 and under rides for free. And we also have, uh, single ride and monthly pass discounts for people with low incomes. So, we encourage anyone who’s qualified or is having challenges paying their Muni fare to take advantage of those programs.

MELISSA: Whatever fare program you use, it’s important to pay the fares expected of you. And that brings us to Muni fare compliance, which we are discussing with Jonathan Rewers. He’s our chief strategy officer.

CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER JONATHAN REWERS: I grew up here in San Francisco. I’m certainly a lover of the city. I think part of loving the city is part of loving Muni. And there’s a social contract, right? Paying the fares, really, kinda contributing to the community and providing those resources that are import to Muni. One, to run the service for everybody in San Francisco but also provide those important programs like our fare discount programs. So, that investment that everybody makes through the fare honestly, I will tell people, is paid over three-to-four-fold. So, we’re really trying to let people know that their fare is a huge investment to the economy and our local businesses in San Francisco and sustaining what makes San Francisco great: Muni.

MELISSA: So how are we doing when it comes to our customers paying the proper fares?

JONATHAN: I’ve been talking to transit agencies across the United States, like New York MTA, the MBTA in Boston, our colleagues at BART and transit agencies in the region. And when we look at fare evasion across the nation and specifically what’s going on in San Francisco, we’re seeing people not paying the fare or evading the fare at some of the highest levels we’ve probably seen in the last decade. It’s certainly higher than it has been in any of our prior reports, which is concerning. 

MELISSA: Okay then, what are we doing about this? We are asking people to pay AND educating them on how to do so. And we do that with the help of our transit fare inspectors. We’re with a team of fare inspectors on Van Ness Avenue, and we’re about to board a 49 Van Ness-Mission bus. The team is led by Inspector V. Lujan. She’s been with the SFMTA since 1999 and currently is an acting supervisor.

TRANSIT FARE INSPECTOR AND ACTING SUPERVISOR V. LUJAN: Each morning, we get assignments, and we have three lines that we work on. For instance, the 49, the 14 and the 5. So, we have teams of either two people or three people going on the lines for the day. So, they’ll stay on the same lines for the whole day and do fare inspection. We’re not only citing, but we’re out there interacting with the community and things like that, yeah. So, we deal with not just fare inspection. 

MELISSA: Our inspectors let riders know their options when it comes to paying fares.

LUJAN: We all carry these red cards, and they have, like, maybe all the programs that Muni offers, like low-income programs for seniors, low-income monthly passes like Lifeline passes. So, if our contact doesn’t have proof of payment, it’s not automatically a cite. It’s like, “Okay, you’ve been warned. Here’s a copy of all the programs we offer. Please go and check those out so you don’t have to fare evade.” 

MELISSA: We climb on the bus, and the fare inspection begins.

MUNI BUS ANNOUNCEMENT: Warning, doors are closing

FARE INSPECTORS: Good afternoon, checking for proof of payment. Please take out your Clipper cards, bus passes and transfers…

MELISSA: Lujan notes that the inspectors also keep an eye on each other while they’re working.

LUJAN: We use our radios ‘cause, as you can see, the 49 is a fairly long bus, right? And it’s crowded, and we hardly can see each other. So, our radios and our, uh, voices sometimes when they don’t hear our radios. So, always keep a visual on your partner. We always visually looking out for each other. But most important: radio transmission. And if anything goes wrong, communicate via radio first. If not, yell, scream, whatever you can to get our attention. But all the time we keep eyes on each other. We’ll check, glance at each other, check, glance. Just to make sure everybody’s safe. 

MELISSA: After a few minutes, we get off the bus and Inspector D. Brown, another member of this team, explains why he just issued a citation to a rider.

TRANSIT FARE INSPECTOR BROWN: Prior to my boarding, I saw the passenger get out of his seat and come up and tag, pay his fare and then go sit back down. So, that’s called “tagging upon inspection,” which is a citation. So, that’s why I cited him. And the lady that was in front of him that I contacted first, I’m 95% sure she did the same. But I saw him for sure, for sure. And I couldn’t really dispute whether she got on the bus with us like she says she did. I’m kinda thinking she didn’t, but I just gave her a little warning and just told her to make sure she’s tagging when she boards. 

MELISSA: We get on another 49, and Brown comes across another rider who hadn’t paid his fare properly. He talks about it afterward.

BROWN: He just didn’t have valid proof of payment. He just didn’t, didn’t tag. So, he just got on and sat down like a lot of the riders do. So, he was, he was cited for not having a valid proof of payment.

 MELISSA: One of the things that I noticed is that he seemed a little bit indignant about it. Is that something that you run into?

 BROWN: Oh, all the time. Yes, yeah. A lot of times they’re…they fare evade quite a bit, and then when they finally get caught, they’re mad at us. You know, so. You know, he snatched his ID, but he didn’t say anything. So, that’s better than what most people so.

 MELISSA: What kinds of things have you run into from people?

 BROWN: Oh, they cuss us out and just get very rude and indignant. You know, you get used to it, and you kinda know what to expect. So, you just don’t take it personal and just do your job.

MELISSA: What Brown just said about the rider boarding and sitting down without appearing to pay brings us to an important point. In this case, the rider who was cited had no proof he had paid. But between our all-door boarding system on Muni vehicles and the many ways people pay their fares, it might look like some people haven’t paid when, in fact, they have. We understand that is confusing and frustrating for some of our customers. So, we ask Inspector E. Isler…the third member of this team we’re with…how she might help clear up that confusion if and when she encounters it.

TRANSIT FARE INSPECTOR E. ISLER: I would tell the passengers not to assume that another passenger is not paying their fare. Because there are bus passes that don’t have to be tagged, that don’t have to be presented to the operator. They’re only to be presented to the fare inspectors. 

MELISSA: Indeed, someone who used, for example, our Muni Mobile app to pay wouldn’t have to tag at the card readers on a vehicle. Neither would someone who paid cash and then transferred or someone who bought a day pass. And of course, no one 18 or under has to pay. So, looks can be deceiving…and as Isler says, we shouldn’t assume. We also talk with her about how the inspectors engage with riders who may not have paid.

ISLER: We do enforce fairly. When people do not have proper fare coverage, we either check their payment history. If they have a form of payment that they normally pay with, we check their fare history and see how often they’re paying. If they’re paying often, we take their word that maybe this time they forgot, give them the opportunity to pay. We come across people who are unfortunate and cannot afford to pay. We do offer options for them to get their fare covered and also have their citation taken care of. Because we do have to issue a citation most of the time because we have to provide something that shows that there is a need for fare coverage even though this person may be unfortunately not in a position to pay out of their pocket. 

MELISSA: This brings us back to Inspector Lujan who tells us that supporting people and the community is one of the things she likes most about her work.

LUJAN: We go downtown, you meet tourists. We engage with the tourists. They ask us different questions: either directions or places to visit, places to eat. We get a lot of people that are mentally ill. So, you know, people just wanna be heard sometimes. And it’s not about just citing them, but you wanna hear out their story and, obviously, make your decision from there. But we do try to listen, for the most part. We sometimes spend a little bit more time people who are actually going through it, versus just checking and leaving and saying, “You’re gonna get a citation.” We do actually spend that little time if we see that the person is going through some, uh, things. We get a lotta seniors, too, regular seniors that just, they wanna talk because they’re by themselves most of the time. So, they just need somebody to talk to for the day. And that’s where we come in. So, it’s not just about citing but just engaging with all people, like, from different communities. :

MELISSA: It’s almost like having multiple jobs rolled into one.

LUJAN: I mean, our title is “Transit Fare Inspectors,” but out here, you’re a psychiatrist, you’re a mom, you’re a dad, you’re a friend, you’re a companion. I mean, we come with different titles. People just see us as “the ticket people,” and, uh, we do much more than that, actually, yeah. So, a lot of people have gotten awards for saving people that are in a mental crisis, people that are ill, or people that have medical conditions, all that. So, a lot of people have been saved by fare inspectors, actually. 

MELISSA: And Lujan adds that a lot of riders feel comforted by her and her colleagues presence on Muni.

LUJAN: When they see us, it’s like, “Oh, my god, we feel much safer!” Once in a while they thank us for our service. Our uniform, I guess, creates a sense of security, a sense of safety. So yeah, we provide that, as well. I mean, we’re out here, we’re Muni’s eyes and ears. If there’s anything happening, I mean we’re the first to respond to it.

MELISSA: We take the work our fare inspectors do very seriously. That’s why last year, our board of directors approved a plan to increase the number of inspectors. Meanwhile, we say goodbye to Inspectors Lujan, Isler and Brown and check back in with our Chief Strategy Officer Jonathan Rewers. He mentions that we are doing outreach to educate people who may not know how to pay AND that we’re working to make our payment systems simpler and more convenient.

JONATHAN: The region, and I mean the overall Bay Area region, has put a lot of investment in the Clipper fare system. Most recently, the improvement a lot of people saw was the ability to have your Clipper card on your phone and simply tag with phone versus having a physical card. We’re also working with our partners across the region on kind of, uh, a fare program where it’s easy to transfer between systems. We’re working very closely with the region to integrate our own programs into the Clipper system, so you don’t have to buy separate things or use separate, kind of, fare systems. That’s a point of confusion for people and sometimes can be a barrier for them. It’s all about the experience of the ride from the minute you’re at the stop to the point that you pay your fare to the ride you have on our bus and train. And we’re really making an investment to make people comfortable and enjoy their trip on Muni. 

MELISSA: Thank you for joining us on Taken with Transportation. We’re a production of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, and you can find the latest episodes at SFMTA.com/Podcast, as well as Apple, Spotify, our YouTube channel or wherever you listen. I’m Melissa Culross. Be well and travel well.