Muni customers expect predictable and reliable service on their trips. On-time performance measures how well Muni vehicles adhere to their schedules. Schedule adherence is especially important for routes with infrequent service so that customers know how to plan their trips.

Muni on-time performance represents the percent of vehicle departures occuring within four minutes late or one minute early of the scheduled departure time.

MUNI ON-TIME PERFORMANCE

Data note: January and February 2017 on-time performance, gaps, and bunching data cannot be reported due to a network issue resulting from the phase-out of the 2G cellular network. This network issue limited NextBus predictions and prevented systemwide on-time performance data from being collected.

On-time performance is most valuable as a measure of customer experience for bus routes with less frequent service (i.e. routes that run less frequently than every 20 minutes). For less frequent routes, customers are more likely to check a printed schedule before heading to a bus or rail stop. Since most Muni passengers ride lines that are scheduled to run frequently, the percentage of transit trips with bunching or gaps is a more accurate measure of customer experience on those routes, since what is most important for customer experience is that the time between buses and trains (“headway”) is regular and close to the headways in the schedule. Measures of bunching and gaps show how Muni is performing on providing regular, reliable service on frequent lines.

How Performance is Measured

Muni on-time performance is calculated by dividing the count of vehicle timepoint departures that are on-time (within four minutes late or one minute early of the scheduled arrival time) by the number of total departures, reported system-wide. 

The SFMTA began using a new vehicle locating system in 2019 to measure on-time performance based on departure times, rather than arrival times as in the previous system. This is consistent with changes to internal methodology and, among other advantages, allows for better measurement of on-time performance at the beginnings of trips as vehicles depart from their origin terminals. The change in methodology will be reflected in the April 2019 data and going forward. Records prior to April 2019 measure the on-time performance of arrivals.

The number displayed on the scorecard page represents a fiscal year average of the values in the chart above.