»A Story Problem

Anna, Max, Jen, and Salim want to get from Holloway and 19th to Bernal Heights on a Friday evening. They have amongst them a credit card, a debit card, a $5 bill, four $1 bills, and a pocketful of change (about 75¢, not including pennies). Find the best route. 10 points. Bonus:Find the cheapest method, considering time at $8.50 per person per hour. 5 points.

We are standing at a major intersection, where a bus and streetcar stop.

Possible Solution A
Take the streetcar to Balboa Park BART ($1.25), and buy separate tickets for BART to 24th Street ($1.25). Walk six blocks to the party. Travel time: 30 minutes.

Possible Solution B
Take the bus to Daly City BART ($1.25), and buy separate tickets for BART to 24th Street ($2.15). Walk six blocks to the party. Travel time: 45 minutes.

Possible Solution C
Take a cab. About $3 per person (not including gratuity; cash, credit cards accepted), and 20 minutes.

Possible Solution D
Take the M inbound to Church and Market ($1.25), transfer to the J (free) to 24th Street, walk 10 blocks. Travel time: 45 minutes.

The solution?

We spent several minutes rassling with getting the $5 bill into the MUNI ticket machine, although we realised that it wouldn't conveniently dispense four single-ride tickets. We needed the change, as we didn't have four singles and quarters per rider. We finally wrangled change and tickets from the second machine (the first was ornery about our singles), but in the process of doing so missed the first M that came to the platform. We waited for the next train, and were alarmed when the "End of the line!" call came as we looked out onto a dark, busy street. The MUNI streetcar stopped in the middle of the roadway, so we had to cross a lane of car traffic just to get to the sidewalk -- a sidewalk which had a PCC eerily parked across it (which turned out to be live, although the interior was darkened; just after we walked in front of it the car began rolling into the intersection). We made our way to what seemed like the crosswalk, but were still on the diagonal from the BART station. Why doesn't MUNI have a more formal terminal at the end of its line? Or connect conveniently with the BART, with which it shares a nominal destination ("Balboa Park")? Instead, the M and L lines abandon riders on the far side of their only possible destination, the BART station. We walked to the station and descended to the ticketing area, and bought four single-ride tickets (non-refillable; does BART somehow re-use or re-cycle these tickets?) to ride three stations to 24th Street.

I was impressed to learn that BART vending machines issue multiple tickets in a single transaction; dismayed that MUNI's cannot; irritated at the difficulty of transfer between systems; and satisfied, although not impressd, with the economy of public transit in the Bay Area.