Sometimes someone else does such a kick ass job on a story, you just have to give it some publicity. This little expose by SFist.com on the NextBus/Muni follies is really worth checking out. Just go there and read, and you’ll see. It’s pretty startling.
Right on, SFist! You beat out the Guardian, the Weekly, the Chron, the Examiner, and more with this one!
UPDATE: I had a chance to listen to a little bit of Muni Director Nate Ford on KGO AM radio this morning. Someone asked him about this very issue, and he was pretty forthright in his response, saying that while implementing NextBus was a priority, but he was also worried about rolling it out without it being ready to go (a contrast to the comments of Ms. Maggie Muni). He did say more than once he supported NextBus in principle and that it would be helpful to Muni in assessing how the system’s doing, as well as be useful for passengers.
I think it’s notable to hear the boss speak, and contrast it with the snark of Muni’s spokesbot, and the confusion of Muni employees. Maybe it’s time Muni make some changes so that employees are as knoweldgeable and polite and direct as their boss.
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I had the chance to listen to the archive of the show (I got interrupted when NextBus came up).
One caller said that as a rider he would rather have imperfect information than no information. Both Ronn Owens and Nat Ford said they disagreed. I was somewhat disapppointed by that response. It is the response of someone who has never stood on a street corner waiting and waiting for their usual bus to come when two blocks away, the buses are running mostly on time.
Otherwise, it was definitely informative to listen to Mr. Ford answer questions.
True, but at the same time you’d hate to see the Chron or the Ex blast out a headline “NextBus Boondoggle Wrong X% of the time” and the local TV people making hay of it.
For me I judge the response, Ford was upfront and at least sounded like he was making an effort to undo the damage of previous folks. The response of the Muni’s spokesperson with sarcastic remarks was not so great.