Keep Newsom’s Free Muni Discussion Moving

Before Newsom’s announcement, free Muni was a radical idea that was not thought possible in the near term as most proposals centered around providing less expensive service to our most vulnerable citizens.

The Mayor has been testing the waters regarding this issue; it seems that his conservative backers are not willing to challenge him and liberals are wary of expressing their support in an election year. But this is the prime moment to make such an environmentally and socially progressive move.

The basis of the idea lays in quite simple math: the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) only collects 18 percent of its funds thought fares while spending the same amount on fare collection. Furthermore, the City is preparing to make strenuous efforts to amp up its collection rate including expensive, high tech initiatives such as TransLink. For free Muni to work, it would be best to make the switch before precious funds are spent on such infrastructure buildups.

Talk of lowering the cost of Muni is not new. Matt Gonzalez’ 2003 Mayoral platform included free Muni for those under the age of 18, and just this year the San Francisco Youth Commission led a successful drive to get the cost of Fast Passes for 18-21 year olds lowered. The overriding problem with these proposals was that they did not lower Muni’s costs.

A free Muni does pose serious, yet workable problems.

The primary concern is that with no fares, the number of rides demanded of the Muni system would rise; current budgets do not allow for an increase of services. In addition, higher Muni ridership would mean less cars which in turn means less fees related to driving collected by the City.

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