Mayor Lurie just announced a plan to change that, and the broad strokes are surprisingly sensible. The centerpiece: kill the patchwork of payment methods and consolidate everything onto Clipper cards or contactless debit/credit taps. No more Muni Mobile app. No more ambiguity about whether someone paid. You either tapped or you didn't.

The plan also calls for a 30% increase in fare inspectors — 17 new hires to supplement the existing 59. Which, let's be honest, still feels thin for a system running 600-plus buses at any given time. But it's a start.

Let's talk about who's actually evading fares, because it's not who you think. As one SF resident put it bluntly: "None of my wife's coworkers pay when they ride to work. They all make mid six figures. 'I already pay enough taxes.' It's not just the homeless person sleeping on the train." Fare evasion in San Francisco is a cross-class phenomenon, and treating it like an enforcement problem only affecting vulnerable populations is dishonest.

The app elimination isn't without casualties. One local Muni rider pointed out that the app offers a $5.50 all-day pass that doesn't exist on Clipper — meaning frequent riders could actually end up paying more. That's a legitimate gripe, and SFMTA needs to close that gap before ditching the app entirely.

People in Tokyo tap in. People in London tap in. This isn't some radical authoritarian concept — it's how functional transit systems work. The old San Francisco model of multiple honor-system payment methods was a bureaucratic Rube Goldberg machine practically designed to make enforcement impossible and measurement meaningless.

The real test isn't the announcement — it's execution. SFMTA has a long track record of grand plans that dissolve into committee meetings and budget overruns. If Lurie is serious, we should see measurable fare compliance data within six months, not just press releases. Pay for what you use. Fund the system that moves the city. It really shouldn't be this controversial.