SFMTA - Municipal Transportation Agency
Unfairly Penalized for Using Clipper Cards

I shop at the Trader Joe’s grocery that is a block from the Mason St. Cable car turnaround every month. I have never had any problems paying with my card before. It appears that the cable car alone is set up to accept Clipper (and disabled/senior) cards ONLY if they’re shown as “monthly passes” on the conductor's card scanner that he has on his person. Today was the first I heard of anything like this. This is absolutely ridiculous. Riders are encouraged to load their cards. No restrictions should be imposed upon someone who is able to load more than a month on their card, and cable cars are used by many locals, not just tourists!

I handed the guy a regular Clipper card and he said I had to pay five bucks; the card wouldn’t work because it was not a so-called “monthly pass” and that both cards I tried had been loaded with MORE than a month’s rides on them. He would not let me ride home with my load of perishable groceries. I should not be penalized and asked to pay cash on a cable car because my card has been loaded with more than a month’s fares on it. One is supposed to be able to ride cable cars with Clipper cards also. I was able to use my own card just fine on them until today.

Now I cannot use the Trader Joe’s (a grocery store) that is closest to me because of this idiotic, weird, and discriminatory rule. This is the most unfair and annoying thing I have ever seen MUNI do. So WHAT if a regular MUNI rider gets a bit of extra cash and wants to load up their card so they won’t have to hassle with getting a monthly pass quite so often? I was using my neighbor’s Clipper card first. When he hassled me about this not working, I dug out my own disability card (I am a senior and also hearing-impaired), which ALSO had more than a month loaded on it. He would not take that either. His explanation made no sense to me and he should have let me ride to my destination.instead I had to get off. I complained to some guy in a MUNI truck nearby but he didn’t have anything to say except to ask the conductor about it.

So I waited for the NEXT cable car – and this with frozen foods that I needed to get home as soon as possible. It also did not work on the next conductor's card-scanner but at least I got to go up the hill to where I usually get off this time. He was a little nicer than the other guy, but I am not at all happy with all the hassle I had to go through today for no good reason whatsoever. They are wrongfully discriminating against people who have chosen to load their cards with more than just one month’s fares. This should be nipped in the bud immediately.

I am a low-income, retired LOCAL. I do not carry a bunch of cash on me; I pay at the grocery with a debit card and for my bus, Metro, BART, cable car, and streetcar rides with CARDS. Why are they making it more difficult now for locals to ride the cable cars, and how on earth am I supposed to indicate “monthly pass” on my card so the cable car conductor will take it next time? They are apparently telling me that if I want to ride the cable car I have to pay month-to-month and cannot use a card preloaded with more than a month on it.

It is much easier to take this cable car because this Trader Joe’s is closer and it was always possible for me to get on and sit near the back entrance with my bags and not be unduly thrown about or be in anyone’s way with my bags – totally unlike the buses.

I want this company to please fix this idiotic glitch so that I can go back to riding the cable car with a Clipper card.

Tony HolidaySan Francisco

Company: SFMTA - Municipal Transportation Agency
Country: USA

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