Published Thursday, July 2, 2009, by the San Francisco Chronicle

Transit riders ante up on 1st day of fare hikes

By Rachel Gordon
Chronicle Staff Writer

It was one of those shrug-your-shoulders-and-sigh days on Bay Area transit
Wednesday, the first day of fare increases enacted by four major operators.

The San Francisco Municipal Railway, BART, AC Transit and Golden Gate ferry and
buses boosted fares to help close swelling budget deficits.

Jenny Samuels plunked her usual six quarters into the fare box of a 14-Mission
bus in downtown San Francisco Wednesday. The driver told her -- nicely -- that
she needed to pay 50 cents more. "Oh yeah," said Samuels, a convention planner.
"I forgot."

During an eight-block ride down Mission, the driver had to do a lot of
reminding. There were a few grumbles from passengers, a couple of
"I-didn't-knows," and one man who ignored the driver and sat down in the back of
the bus without paying at all.

J.P Jenkins, who is disabled, paid $5 more this month to buy a discounted
monthly Muni pass. "It's not going to be easy, but I don't have a choice," said
Jenkins, who lives on Social Security benefits.

A few blocks away, Connie Stein was buying a BART card at the Montgomery Street
Station. The ergonomics specialist had a day off from work and was headed to
Berkeley to meet a friend for coffee. The round-trip fare set her back $7.30.
BART raised fares 6.1 percent across the board.

"I don't like paying more ... but that's the way it goes," she said.

Nancy O'Hare had a similar attitude as she waited for an AC Transit bus at San
Pablo and Ashby avenues in Berkeley Wednesday afternoon and had to pay an extra
25 cents. "Two dollars for a bus ride is a lot of money, and I don't have a lot
of extra," said O'Hare, who works in an art store. Attorney Paul Zieff, who
lives in Corte Madera and works in San Francisco, didn't feel the immediate
impact of his pricier ride aboard a Golden Gate ferry Wednesday morning because
he pays with a prepaid fare card from which the cost of each trip is
automatically deducted every time he boards. Use of the card also gives him a 20
percent price break.

The cost of a basic one-way ferry ride, without any discounts, went up to $7.85,
a 40-cent increase. Golden Gate increased fares 5 percent.

After giving the fare increase a moment of thought, Zieff said, "I'm off to buy
some flippers. I'm going to start swimming."

E-mail Rachel Gordon at rgordon@...