ART AND NATURE: Muni Customer Satisfaction Survey

Muni Customer Satisfaction Survey
By Jeanne Brophy

38R and Passengers at bus shelter downtown

The results of the 2021 Muni Customer Satisfaction Survey reflect ridership impacts and concerns during the global pandemic and a local shelter-in-place order. As a result, Muni reduced service and experienced significantly lower ridership demand. Muni was able to provide service to essential workers along with protecting its front-line workforce and the overall financial outlook for the agency.

Survey respondents gave us a 57 percent overall positive satisfaction rating. Topping the customer list of most important attributes were accessibility, cleanliness, and operator helpfulness.

Highlights of the 2021 Muni survey:

57 percent of Muni riders rate its overall service as “good” or “excellent” – a 2% decline from 2019
Low-income riders rate Muni service higher now than before the pandemic indicating our data-driven service delivery was aligned to the public need of focusing on essential workers and the transit dependent:
- < $25,000 income category rate “excellent/good:” 63% up 9% vs. 2019
- $25,000-$50,000 income category rate “excellent/good:” 74% up 8% vs. 2019
In 2019, nearly three-quarters (72%) of riders rode Muni once a week. Since the start of the pandemic*, this has decreased to just over half (52%)
79 percent rate Muni’s accessibility for people with disabilities as “excellent” or “good” – an increase of 8% from 2019 -- Muni’s best rated attribute by respondents
60 percent rate the cleaning of Muni vehicles “excellent” or “good”—an increase of 11%--our biggest gain this survey period
70 percent rate transit operator helpfulness as Muni’s best attribute – up 4% since the last survey. We appreciate our front-line operators for their service delivery to essential workers throughout the pandemic

How We Gather Results
The 2021 survey project used a hybrid approach, blending both telephone interviews and online surveys to collect feedback from adult San Francisco residents. A total of 413 interviews were conducted during the period of August 17, 2021, to October 6, 2021. This survey was established to track the level of satisfaction that Muni riders have with our service. Using this tracker, progress can be tracked over time and measure the impacts of changes that have been implemented to improve service.

PDF icon Ridership Survey 2021: Executive Summary and Questionnaire