Cost in time and money of late-night public transit from Bay Area theaters

Time back to 901 Mission St. via public transit

11:03 p.m.

11:06 p.m.

11:36 p.m.

11:38 p.m. 12:30 a.m.

Cost for two people via public transit

$25.60

$17.40

$19.60

$10 $40.80

Cost for two people via car

$23.06

$20.22

$22.60

$4.82 $42.11 must first wait almost an hour for Caltrain following the show’s 9:50 p.m. curtain call. Taking buses to Marin Theatre Company’s “Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley” and Presidio Theatre’s “The Magic Lamp” is more expensive than driving — in the second case, more than twice as much.

Also with “The Magic Lamp,” the last run of free shuttle Presidigo starts at 6 p.m., so you first have to walk 1 mile out of the Presidio. The Presidio Theatre’s website encourages audiences to use Presidigo without that caveat; it also mistakenly recommends a San Francisco Muni line (43) that doesn’t currently stop nearby. The actual public transit route takes more than an hour to travel less than 5 miles — the pace of a jog.

Some Muni routes are slated to come back in March, Arvin noted, and more in June. “But nighttime service in the routes that are being brought back will not be running past 10 p.m.,” they said. Full restoration is not yet on the calendar.

That’s unacceptable. Now is the time for visionary leadership at our transit agencies and government. Bay Area actors dig into their souls to take audiences on a journey every night. It shouldn’t take an epic, expensive journey for us all to get to the theater.

“Nighttime service in the (Muni) routes that are being brought back will not be running past 10 p.m.”

Chris Arvin, transit advocate