Why are folks refusing to ride the San Fran Muni buses? Easy—they do not want to be a crime victim, ride dirty and diseased government buses.
“San Francisco is no exception. The total number of reported assaults on Muni increased to 186 in 2021, up from 74 in 2020 and 76 in 2019. That 150% increase occurred despite a major slump in ridership during the pandemic. During the initial weeks of Covid lockdowns in spring 2020, weekday ridership plummeted more than 80% compared to pre-pandemic averages. Ridership slowly recovered from those lows, but had only reached about half of pre-pandemic averages by the end of 2021.
San Fran is collapsing—and the lack of ridership is due in part to companies leaving town, companies allowing employees to work from home—and families leaving town. The bus ridership is the best example of how San Fran is doing. Losing ridership while gaining crime on the buses. Not a good place to be.
Assaults on Muni More than Doubled Last Year Even Amid Decreased Ridership
Written by Annie Gaus, San Francisco Standard, 4/27/22
With pandemic restrictions winding down, transit systems nationwide are luring back passengers to buses and trains. But many of them are also grappling with another problem: a rise in assaults and other crimes on public transit.
San Francisco is no exception. The total number of reported assaults on Muni increased to 186 in 2021, up from 74 in 2020 and 76 in 2019. That 150% increase occurred despite a major slump in ridership during the pandemic. During the initial weeks of Covid lockdowns in spring 2020, weekday ridership plummeted more than 80% compared to pre-pandemic averages. Ridership slowly recovered from those lows, but had only reached about half of pre-pandemic averages by the end of 2021.
The decreased ridership dragged down the total number of crimes to commensurately lower levels during the pandemic, with reports of larcenies—simple theft, and once the most common type of crime on Muni—dropping significantly, along with fewer robberies.
A New York Times report found that transit agencies nationwide are grappling with how to restore confidence in public transit and mitigate fears of crime.
In Philadelphia, robberies and aggravated assaults jumped 80% on transit between 2019 and 2021, according to a report from The Philadelphia Inquirer. A Los Angeles Times report from late last year found that reported violent crimes were up 25% from 2020 on that city’s public transit system. New York City and Chicago are also seeing spikes. On April 12, a gunman opened fire at a Brooklyn subway station, wounding 10 and injuring more than a dozen others.
In response to the New York subway shooting, the Bay Area Rapid Transit system increased its police and transit ambassador presence throughout its system. BART also relies on cameras and other riders to report suspicious behavior, BART Police Chief Ed Alvarez said at a press conference on April 12. But BART, like the SFPD, is facing a staffing shortage, with around 25 vacancies.
“It’s a partnership, collaborative effort with our employees, ridership and the police department to try to go out there and make the system as safe as it can be, and that’s by reporting incidents,” Alvarez said.
The San Francisco Municipal Transporation Agency (SFMTA) had not returned a request for comment by press time, but its director, Jeffrey Tumlin, addressed how the agency deals with crime at a February board meeting.
Following a reported spike in crime against Asian Americans, Tumlin said the system’s operators and transit fare inspectors work directly with the SFPD, and rely on on-bus video surveillance to catch perpetrators.
“When we get crime reported on Muni, we immediately download that video and that video is able to provide a very, very high conviction rate,” Tumlin said at a Feb. 15 Board of Directors meeting.
