Since Ed “Gets it Done” Lee was inaugurated as our elected mayor, Muni continues to be on-time 'more often than not', despite it system's on-time performance falling more than 5% since the beginning of the year.  The Bay Citizen reports:

[Paul Rose], the SFMTA spokesman attributed the 57.2 percent on-time rate in August to a combination of bus driver absences, rickety old vehicles, a Muni operator shortage and special events such as the America’s Cup yacht race that spread service too thin.

The driver shortages and broken-down vehicles have caused Muni to skip more bus runs than earlier in the year. Last Monday, for example, Muni canceled 113 bus runs, putting 90.9 percent of its scheduled service out on the street. The voter-mandated goal is to deliver 98.5 percent of the scheduled bus and train runs each day – and the agency often came close to that in years past.

Before March, Muni would pay drivers overtime to fill in for absent drivers. But with out-of-control overtime spending contributing to a perennial budget deficit, Muni managers have become stingier with overtime.

Other fun tidbits from SFMTA's report on Muni include that two buses arrive at stops within minutes of each other 5.7% of the time and have a 28.2% failure rate at even getting out of the station on schedule.  (Good thing we all ride bikes, right?)

[Bay Citizen]