Muni’s New Senior Pass Debuts Next Month
Transit agency also seeks input about southeastern bus routes
By Andrew Chow
AsianWeek Staff Writer
Senior citizens who ride the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) system will use new “Senior” discount passes beginning Aug. 1, Muni officials announced this month.
The monthly senior passes, for riders 65 and older, will be available from all current Fast Pass vendors, Muni spokesman Alan Siegel said. The price of the passes will remain unchanged at $8, he said.
The policy change mostly affects disabled riders, who will now have to carry a Regional Transit Connection (RTC) Discount Card and purchase new monthly Muni fare stickers, also available for $8. The RTC card requires an application form and a $3 fee.
Previously, all senior and disabled riders used the “D” discount pass, Siegel said.
“The [discount] pass was supposed to work with the Regional Transit discount card, which meant [disabled] people had to show two cards whenever they boarded,” Siegel explained.
The new policy — requiring disabled riders to display only the RTC discount card — “makes it faster for them and faster for us,” he said.
About 54,000 riders currently purchase the “D” discount passes each month, Siegel said.
Though no statistics are available to show how many of those riders are Asian Pacific American, about 70 percent of APA seniors — many of who live on low or fixed incomes and cannot afford a car — rely on Muni for transportation, said Julie Yee, interim director of the Asian Pacific American Community Center in Visitacion Valley.
For more information on the new “Senior” and disabled passes, call Muni at 415-923-6070.
Meantime, Muni riders in the city’s southeastern sector can comment on and suggest changes to routes serving the Bayview and Hunter’s Point neighborhoods during a community meeting Monday night.
APAs comprise about 34 percent of residents in those neighborhoods, according to the 2000 census.
The meeting complies with a lawsuit settlement between Muni and the Bayview Advocates group, Muni transit planner Suany Chough said. Bayview Advocates had sued Muni, along with other Bay area transit systems, for allegedly failing to follow through on promises to increase ridership.
Routes to be discussed at the meeting include the 23-Monterey, 29-Sunset, 44-O’Shaughnessy and 54-Felton lines, Chough said.
“We’re going to the community to see what their ideas are, to study them and see what’s feasible,” she said.
The meeting will be held at the Southeast Community Facility, 1800 Oakdale Ave. (near Phelps), in the Alex Pitcher Community Room, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
San Francisco Municipal Railway: www.sfmuni.org.
Reach Andrew Chow at achow@asianweek.com.
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