SF Muni plans 25-cent surcharge for riders paying cash

Muni riders who pay with cash instead of Clipper cards will have to drop an extra quarter in the fare box under a budget adopted Tuesday evening by the Municipal Transportation Agency. Adding a 25-cent surcharge to cash fares — boosting them to $2.50 — will raise an estimated $3.8 million in 2017 and $3.9 million in 2018, and should also benefit Muni by speeding up the boarding process and reducing the cost of processing fares, said Ed Reiskin, the MTA’s transportation director. While the agency wants to push passengers to pay with the Clipper card or a Muni mobile phone app, some representatives of community groups argued that the surcharge unfairly punishes people who can’t afford to keep a cash balance on Clipper or who are intimidated by the card. “If you don’t want to use Clipper, you pay a little bit more,” he said. Because you’re costing the system. [...] Muni will continue the program offering free fares for low-income seniors, youths and disabled people, and will increase the maximum age for youth discounts from 17 to 18. Other expenditures include $8 million in 2017 and $16.5 million in 2018 for technology and equipment upgrades, $9.6 million in 2017 and $8.4 million in 2018 to give the J-Church, K-Ingleside and T-Third priority at traffic signals, and $1 million each year for Vision Zero education projects.