Thank You for Making Transit Employee Appreciation Day a Success

We saw a boost in people riding and sending in praise – commendations – for our operators on Transit Employee Appreciation Day. Thank you for your support.

March 18 this year was a banner day here at the SFMTA. It was Transit Employee Appreciation Day, and so many of you rode Muni and showed your appreciation that it’s our turn to thank you.

How many? We surpassed 531,000 riders on March 18, or 35,000 more riders than our average daily March ridership. That’s a 7 percent increase over a typical day in March this year and the highest ridership day for the month.

And not only that, SFMTA staff received more official commendations on that day than we usually see in one month. In fact, for all of March, commendations were up 152 percent from March 2024.

It was also the first year Transit Employee Appreciation Day has been officially recognized by San Francisco. That’s thanks to District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who introduced a resolution to the Board of Supervisors to mark the day.

Muni operator Mc Allen has long championed Transit Employee Appreciation Day, creating a website to bring more attention to the day. “Muni operators often are invisible to the public,” he said in March. “I wanted to do something about it.”

When told of the increase in ridership on March 18 this year, Allen was pleasantly surprised. “That was my main goal and much better than I expected we’d do,” he said. “Anecdotally, I’ve heard from operators that more people are saying ‘thank you.’”

We also saw quite a bit of praise come in for our cable car operators.

One rider who submitted a commendation was San Francisco Chronicle reporter Peter Hartlaub, who writes the paper’s Total SF newsletter. “I met cable car gripman Val Lupiz in 2018 when we were riding every Muni bus in one day for the San Francisco Chronicle,” Hartlaub wrote in his commendation. “Val works tirelessly to make our city more joyful. We’re lucky to have him!”

Transit employees make a difference in riders’ daily lives, the commendations we received show. One anonymous commenter wrote: “I just want to thank the drivers and everyone involved with keeping public transportation on the roads! My middle schooler and his friends often take the bus home from school, and we really appreciate this valuable resource!”

We thank you for these and many other commendations submitted through our site. But Allen had a parting note for San Franciscans. “The best way to thank an operator is to ride Muni,” he said. “The best way to get people to ride Muni is to try it, and I hope we help people build the habit of riding Muni.”

If you’d like to show your appreciation for an operator, a simple “thank you” goes a long way. But if you’d like to submit a formal commendation, Allen has detailed instructions on his website. You can also follow the steps below.