Six in 10 riders rank Muni ‘good’ or ‘excellent’

Rider satisfaction with Muni service trended slightly upward in 2014, but a new survey shows riders want more improvement in on-time performance and reliability.

A ridership survey conducted by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency showed 64 percent of riders interviewed gave Muni an excellent or good rating.

To break it down even further, 14 percent of riders gave Muni an excellent rating while 50 percent the transit system a good rating. Thirty percent of riders gave Muni service a fair rating and 7 percent rated Muni service as poor.

The transit agency said it completed 620 interviews with adult Muni riders who have used the system in the last six months. Staff conducted interviews in February over the phone with San Francisco residents in English, Spanish and Chinese.

In 2011, 57 percent of riders gave overall Muni service an excellent or good rating and 62 percent of riders gave the same rating in 2012.

Overall service ratings have increased over the last 13 years, when only 48 percent of riders rated Muni service as excellent or good. Riders surveyed still said that the transit agency still needs to do a better job with crowding, communications with riders, vehicle cleanliness and on-time performance.

Only 31 percent of the 620 riders surveyed gave Muni an excellent or good rating on its performance on managing overcrowding on vehicles.

Riders also said the transit agency could a better job with communicating with riders and vehicle cleanliness. Forty-nine percent of riders gave both of these an excellent or good rating,

On-time performance and reliability was another attribute rated low by riders surveyed. Fifty percent of riders rated transit agency’s handling of on-time performance and reliability as excellent or good.

Muni was on time 55.6 percent of the time in the month of September, according to SFMTA documents.

Seventy nine percent of riders did give Muni an excellent or good rating in accessibility for disabled riders and 69 percent of riders rated driver helpfulness as excellent or good.

SFMTA staff will share the findings from the 2014 ridership survey at Tuesday’s SFMTA board meeting.

Jerold Chinn

Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.