Muni in 2016: Less crime, more on time

As the New Year begins, officials from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency released its annual report on some of its achievements and shortcomings during the 2015-2016 fiscal year.

The report released last week and presented to the SFMTA’s Board of Directors on Tuesday did highlight some positive news including completing 30 pedestrian and bike safety projects, more Muni riders satisfied with transit service and a reduction in crimes on Muni.

As previously reported by SFBay, 70 percent of Muni riders surveyed last year by the SFMTA rated transit service in The City as either “good” or “excellent” compared to 2010 when it was only at 52 percent.

Crime on Muni vehicles has decreased and is at a four-year low in 2016 at six incidents for every 100,000 vehicle miles traveled. In 2014, the crime rate was at 9 incidents for every 100,000 vehicles miles traveled.

There was room for improvement though as workplace injuries continued to steadily climb from 11 injuries per 200,000 hours in 2014 to 12.8 injuries per 200,000 hours in 2016.

Muni collisions also were higher in the last four years at 6.6 for every 100,000 vehicle miles traveled.

On-time performance of Muni continues to make slow progress at best. In 2016, on-time performance was at 59.8 percent, which was higher compared to 2015 when it was 56.8 percent. Muni’s on-time performance remains under the voter-mandated goal of 85 percent.

Bunching on Muni’s Rapid Network saw an increase from 4.8 parent in 2015 to 5.4 percent in 2016. Gaps in service saw a slight decrease from 17.2 percent in 2015 to 16.8 percent in 2016.

SFMTA’s Director of Transportation Ed Reiskin said there would be more discussion about Muni’s on-time performance next month when the board retreats to a different location for its Feb. 7 board meeting.