MUNI plans to increase fares, or What could you do with $10?

In a recent SF Gate article on MUNI freeloaders, Rachel Gordon dropped the bomb that MUNI is planning a $10 increase on its popular (and handy) monthly Fast Pass:

For Maddow and many other Muni regulars, fare cheats are a major irritation, especially when the prospect of fare increases is thrown into the mix. Muni plans to raise the cost of the regular FastPass in July to $55, a $10 increase.

Majorly irritated, indeed. I love it when officials punish the regular, law-abiding customers because of the officials' unwillingness or inability to fix their own problems. Now, I'm lucky because my job offers subsidized mass transit. Each month I get $45 toward my transit costs. For two years now, my MUNI pass has cost $45, so I've paid nothing. Frankly, it's my favorite benefit at work. Now, though, I'll have to pay $10 a month to ride on the unreliable, crowded, dirty MUNI system and enjoy their increasingly rude operators.

What would I rather spend $10 a month on?

Iced Tea



Seriously, did you expect anything different for my first option? A venti, unsweetened black iced tea at Starbucks is a mere $2. I could enjoy five extra iced teas per month and single-handedly reinvigorate the economy--both with my hard-earned ten dollars and my five extra jolts of caffeine.

Music



At just 99 cents a piece, I could fuel the music industry to the tune (yes, I said it) of TEN whole songs each and every month.

More Texting!



For $10 extra per month, I could move from the puny 200 text plan to a whopping 1500 texts per month. Now that's something to Tweet about.

To make a long story short, I can find many more uses for my $10 than simply forking it over to a bloated bureaucracy that seems hell-bent on running our public transit system into the ground and keeping San Francisco a second-class city when it comes to public transportation.

Dear SFMTA, you'll get my ten dollars if and when you raise your prices, but I'll be watching and writing. If you can take it and make some progress, I will be both shocked and happy. You won't see me holding my breath, though.