Transit passes
John Gilmore recently persuaded me to get a San Francisco Muni monthly pass. I first suggested that it might not be a good deal for me since I don't use transit to commute to work every day, but it turns out that it's often a good deal if you use transit about an average of once per day. I told John that I wasn't sure whether I use transit even that much, and he pointed out that having a flat rate makes people much more willing to use transit -- if they see a bus, they can just get on without needing to pay a fare, even if they only want to travel a short distance. So you can be a more impulsive transit user, because you never experience a marginal cost from choosing to use transit.
Sure enough, I've already used my pass for about $10 of transit service in just two days, and it's already making me see Muni as a more practical and ubiquitous option. Having the pass probably will increase my use of transit to an average of more than once a day. And it works on BART and even cable cars.
When I lived in Berkeley, I had a BART Plus pass. It's interesting to contrast the Muni fast pass with the BART Plus pass.
Muni fast pass:
- Unlimited use of any S.F. Muni bus (or streetcar or cable car) for free
- Unlimited use of BART for free within San Francisco only
BART Plus:
- Unlimited use of any Bay Area bus for free (but see below!)
- For-fee use of BART anywhere in the BART system at a slight effective discount over regular fare
The bus pass feature of both passes expires at the end of the period of validity of the pass, but the BART Plus ticket can still be used for for-fee travel on BART after that period.
BART Plus became a drastically less good deal for people who live in (or often travel to) the East Bay when, a few years ago, it stopped being valid on AC Transit. AC Transit support is still a glaring omission for BART Plus.
At present, I see the Muni pass as a much better deal. I think my experience will show that it can be useful even for people who aren't regular transit commuters. I doubt that the same can be said for BART Plus. And people who really ride BART across the Bay frequently might well be better off with a high-value ticket, which provides a slight discount without also serving as a bus pass.
