Asian smog fouls U.S. coast, study says
On the same day the New York Times published an article about how Bangkok is beating air pollution, an American scientist released a study that says pollution from China and other Asian countries is darkening skies and causing more extreme weather on the U.S. west coast.
Coincidentally, it was also a day when the air quality over the bay wasn’t so great. My new job is right on the bay in South San Francisco, and call it smog, fog, or whatever, today it was not possible to see the East Bay hills.
Of course, we’ve got it easy here in San Francisco proper, where unless there’s a wildfire someplace and an east wind, the weather keeps it pretty clear. But during the summer, at the same time it’s breezy and clear in the city, it can be 90 degrees and smoggy down in Fremont — just look south on one of those nice days in May.
Thus it was extraordinarily good news today when Mayor Gavin Newsom announced that he had asked Muni to look into the idea of making all Muni rides free. This splendid notion would not only encourage many more people to ride public transit, it would also speed up trips, as people could enter vehicles from any door, and drivers could worry about traffic and passenger safety and not about collecting fares.
The idea’s not new. As recently as last summer, after a series of “Spare the Air” alerts got people out of their cars, local activists and politicians proposed making all transit free all the time. And the proposal has been floated in the past in many other places — Toronto, for instance.
Only possible downside: No fares on Muni would mean they would take away the change machines in Muni stations that give out dollar coins.
American smog and pollution has been fouling up the entire world for decades so who are we to complain?
Anyway, I’m much more interested in the free MUNI story. What are the chances of something like this even happening, and do you think it would deteriorate the service even further?
Free Fare would certainly encourage more transit users, so would tax an already stressed system, but that might the catalyst needed to really upgrade things for more efficiency and increased ridership. Chain-reaction, of course, is then you wouldn’t have fares to fund it. GAH!
I’d love to see it. Portland had a Free Fare Zone for their downtown MAX light rail system, and it worked amazingly well (admittedly, I was among the best served by it - lived and worked within the Free Fare Zone for 3+ years)
Viva la Free Fare!
I wouldn’t be against raising the Bay Bridge toll to $5 to pay for free MUNI, and I drive. That should bring in quite a pretty penny. My biggest worry is that the service would deteriorate because of over- use and not enough busses and trains.