So, Is Muni Losing Millions on its Fare-Evasion Program? Spokesman Says That's a 'Narrow' Way of Thinking

By Joe Eskenazi

Yesterday we noted that, according to numbers Muni provided and others we crunched, the agency's beefed-up fare-evasion program costs roughly six times as much to run as the ticket revenue it is generating.

Muni's spokesman, Judson True, got back to us - promptly, he asked us to note, and it's accurate - and labeled this a "narrow" way of judging the program's efficacy. The purpose of having a more visible cadre of fare inspectors is to encourage potential scofflaws to pay up - and never receive a ticket in the first place. Does he have hard numbers? No. But he does have numbers. Muni's original projected fare revenue in Fiscal year 2009 -which commenced on July 1 of 2008 and concludes on June 30 of 2009 - was $144 million. It has now revised its numbers to anticipate $153.3 million.

True is ready to attribute that bulge in anticipated income to a ridership increase and fare inspectors. Unfortunately, though, he has no statistics at the moment to back this up. All we can say is that Muni is taking in more money than it thought it would (and still not nearly enough to make up for its operating deficit). That being said, it seems reasonable to attribute this, albeit partially, to fare inspections - but, again, it sure would be nice to have some more hard indicators to hang our brown Muni hats on and not just common sense and yearning.

Similarly, True credited fare inspectors for decreased vandalism and crime on the system - but couldn't cite statistics to back up that crime and vandalism have gone down, let alone that this is due to fare inspectors.

"I know we've had a decrease in criminal incidents," said True. And he may well be correct - God hope he is - and it makes sense that potential criminals would be dissuaded from their plans by the presence of a man or woman in a uniform. Still, statistics would be nice.

One thing Muni has not done is provide its fare inspectors with some sort of a ticket quota. One of the commenters on my original piece extrapolated the 26,000 and change tickets Muni handed out last year via 50 inspectors working roughly 250 days a year and was miffed that this only came out to around two tickets per day for each inspector. Truth be told, it's more complicated than that. True notes that they didn't have 50 inspectors until quite recently, and it's not as if every inspector is working every day  - though Tom DiSanto, the budget manager at the city controller's office, told us that 99 different Muni employees were fare inspectors at some time in 2008. Either way, it's clear that inspectors aren't handing out tickets like beads on Mardi Gras.

Again, there are a number of reasons for this - in some cases, inspectors are placed outside a train or a bus, which ensures that fare evaders never even enter. And Muni is all too aware of the futility of handing a $50 ticket to someone who couldn't afford a $1.50 fare. And, truth be told, San Franciscans can sometimes be surly when told they're doing something wrong and handing out tickets gets time-consuming.

True said Muni does not know how many fare evaders are on the average train or bus or what percentage of its potential revenue it is losing. This, it seems, would be helpful - especially when indicating whether fare inspection is cost-beneficial.

And, finally, the spokesman noted that Muni is working to develop statistical indicators it can use to determine success or failure - in short, they're learning how to make this work on the go. Based upon one's confidence in Muni's leadership, that's either a cheering or a damning notion.

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