Several years ago, artist John Kuzich began collecting Muni Fast Passes for an art project that is nearing completion. He’s created a number of small collages and completed three out of a set of four large panels using the passes. Along with flyers posted around town and word of mouth, Market Street Railway helped John connect with riders and their accumulated passes through our website, and our member newsletter, Inside Track. The public response to his appeal for donated passes has been phenomenal.
Today, thanks to John, Market Street Railway is the recipient of a nearly complete archive of Muni Fast Passes — from their introduction in May of 1974 to the present day. To complete this set, we need passes for the months of May, June, and August, 1974. John also needs extra copies of April and May, 1976 — difficult to find as Muni was on strike at the time.
Our thanks go to John for his outstanding job of conserving and displaying this unique aspect of living in San Francisco.
If you would like to donate any of the still-needed Fast Passes, send us an email at info@streetcar.org, or contact John Kuzich here.
On a tangent:
What is the best way to promote changes to the way Muni is run?
In particular:
If we are to continue using Fastpasses, why is it not possible to get them on an Annual basis.?
People do not like to have to go every month to one of the few places that sell Fastpasses.
And: Why are Fastpasses not sold in a thousand different places, not just the few?
To answer in reverse order…
SFMTA puts very stringent requirements on merchants who selling FastPasses with very little profit margin. It’s just not worth the hassle for many merchants.
You’re right, it is inconvenient to have to buy a pass each month in person and while they are not offering annual passes you can order FastPasses online or better still, just ditch your FastPass and get a TransLink card instead. Cards are available online and a lot of retail locations (including Walgreens) which you can have loaded automatically each month with your FastPass and/or credit with a stored value which can be used on most (BART is not working, but very close) transit agencies in the Bay Area.
You can send feedback on Muni directly to the SFMTA, but you probably want to do more than just fill out a feedback form. There are a lot of opportunities to get involved by coming to any of the public meetings, writing your District Supervisor and the Mayor, and if you are not already following it you can subscribe to the Transit Effectiveness Project mailing list.
The TEP is a study to find out how to better serve Muni riders which has been in the works for several years collecting information and meeting with the public, but has gone quiet lately because the project has moved into the environmental study phase. The mailing list is probably the best way to get notified (though we’ll definitely be mentioning it here as well) when the draft documents are published and the next round of meetings will begin and you can send feedback on them.