There’s word on The Twitter this morning that the 3 day grace period for Fast Passes is no more, and that if you’re without one come May 1st and don’t pay up the fare, you’re gonna get a nice big ticket.
Which is interesting because I hadn’t seen or heard any information at all on this subject, beyond today’s TwitterRumor. I’ve put in an email to the MTA’s Judson True to find out what’s going on and will post here and on Twitter when I find out. But realistically, if someone like me doesn’t know, how do they expect others to know?
That said, if MUNI and the MTA are going to make that big of a change, you think they’d do a better job of informing the public, than a casual tweet on the 29th of April. Otherwise one could argue they were hoping people didn’t know so they could nail them with a nice big fine.
UPDATE: Word is that despite the fact the passes no longer have the wording, 311, and the MTA indicate that in fact, your 3 day period is still in place. However, as some have pointed out, don’t be surprised if at some point a change is announced to close that budget gap.
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also would like to point out that despite Muni’s twitter claim that it’s been since February, their website still states there’s a 3 day grace period, and there’s no indication it’s ending anytime soon:
http://www.sfmta.com/cms/mfares/passes.htm
Also, Jud True said it’s not him who runs the @SFMuniRy twitter, and he doesn’t know who it is. I’m pretty sure it’s someone internal at Muni though.
I’m not so sure about this, but thanks for looking into it.
First of all, if you, me and the rest of the Twitter transit geek squad had no idea, that’s fishy. Secondly, the MTA website still reflects the grace period. Thirdly, I used it this month as I do almost every month, and got no indication from any drivers there was a problem. So if we don’t know, drivers don’t know, and the MTA website hasn’t been updated, who DID know?
I’m still barely convinced @SFMuniRy even really works for Muni; I asked Judson and he didn’t know who it was.
I knew, but only by virtue of having seen SFMuniRy’s tweets about it last month. How SFMTA expects the general Muni-riding public to magically know this is beyond me. And yes, beyond FAIL. WEAK!
also, i pressed @SFMuniRy a while ago as to their identity, and they say just someone who cares about transit in the city. not official SFMTA.
Does seem likely to be a pre-emptive move in preparation of dropping the grace period.
There is really no reason to get rid of the grace period except to keep people from giving their old pass to a friend.
This problem could be solved by putting a $5 deposit on each pass. You get a $5 discount when you return your pass and buy a new one. Problem solved, except that I don’t know how vendors/Muni would (mis)handle the required accounting.
Folks, when its near the end of the month, print-out the 3-day grace period policy on the Muni website and bring it along with you.
When you get confronted by an official, just show the printout and point to the date stamp confirmation on the bottom or top of the page.
Page is here:
http://www.sfmta.com/cms/mfares/passes.htm
@Megan: most bus drivers would let you on if you waved a sock at them. Most drivers, understandably, don’t want to be in the business of fare enforcement.
FWIW, the passes don’t say $45 any longer, do they?
@Espana Sheriff
No, problem not solved. Lots of people (like me) get FastPasses through the mail. How would that work for us?
Also, even if I bought my FastPass at a liquor store, I’d have to do it after coming home on April 30th and before leaving for work on May 4th so as not to be without a pass for the last few days of April. And so would everybody else. Instead of a bit of increased traffic to their stores over a couple of weeks each month, liquor store owners would have a huge rush on just a few days, which would be undesirable for them, for the FastPass customers, and for anybody else who happened to be in the store.
I’d suspect translink has something to do with this. Bart didn’t honour the grace period anyway – does fastpass-on-translink?
@Zannie
The idea was mine (despite my decimal typo) and I had no idea anyone bought FastPasses through the mail. No solution springs to mind, but since Muni knows the names, addresses and CC number of the mail delivery people, I imagine some antifraud measure is possible.
Re liquor store:Since people will have to trade in one fast pass for the deposit on a new one it is certainly possible to extend the grace period into the previous month: April passes good to 5/3 and May passes good from 4/27.